


Sweet Creature

by paintyouwings



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: All angels are related btw, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angel Louis, Angst, Anything missing just let me know, Blowjobs, Bottom Louis, But we all knew that, Claiming, Eventual Smut, Falling In Love, High School AU, Human Harry, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Oops, Soulmates, They’re both 18 btw, Top Harry, accidental facials, also kinda discriminatory towards angels, but not really enemies, cute sex, ememies to friends to lovers, handjobs, harry is just intimidated by angels, louis is the sweetest of all sweet creatures, so NO underage, those tags will come later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-04-22 06:15:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 66,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14302605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintyouwings/pseuds/paintyouwings
Summary: It’s not that Harry expected high school to be easy. He heard all the stories from his sister and he knew that he was in for four years of hell. However, he didn’t exactly expect that hell to also be populated by Angels.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> New story. Should be interesting.Let me know what you think in the comments below or with that kudos button or both!

“It was an accident! I didn’t really want to claim you!”

By now, Harry has learned to ignore these kinds of outbreaks in the middle of the school hallways. He simply glances to his left, sees Josh Lancaster cornered up against his locker by a short red-headed girl with a very focused and determined look on his face. To be honest, Harry kind of expected Josh to screw himself over like this – Josh has trouble keeping his hands to himself, especially when it comes to girls. So claiming a female Angel? Totally not that surprising at all.

“It’s going to take him weeks to figure his way out of that one.”

Niall horan is leaning up against the locker next to Harry’s and he’s watching the scene down the hall with an amused look. Harry shakes his head as he grabs his math book. “Josh may be an idiot, but you know they’re going to overrule it and he’ll be fine again by next Monday. They can’t possibly expect things like this to stop happening just because they threaten to stop being so lenient on the overruling thing, Niall.”

“You’re so logical, it’s almost painful,” Niall complains, leaning his back completely against the closed locker door and allowing himself to slide down a bit. “If you weren’t around, I’d probably have claimed an Angel by now and been recruited into the War.”

Harry fights back the urge to tell him that he can’t be recruited into their War, because he knows Niall would roll his eyes and ignore him. So instead he sticks with, “Either way, I’d come rescue you,” and Niall gives him a smile, so he knows he’s said the right thing. “Anyway, see you at lunch?”

Niall nods and then he’s on his way, heading down the hallway towards his next class and patting Josh on the back as he passes him. Josh doesn’t react to it – he’s a little bit preoccupied with the Angel he’s got all up in his personal space. Accidental claiming sucks. Josh definitely wasn’t expecting his day to go this way when he woke up this morning.

Claiming is like…sort of like dating. Well, aside from the fact that it’s kind of permanent (unless you manage to get it overruled) and Angels consider it much more important. And ever since they started blending into society and attending schools with humans, accidental claiming is a pretty common occurrence. When you put humans and Angels together, it’s bound to happen, considering all you have to do to claim an Angel is to touch the underneath part of their wings closest to their backs. And that’s kind of hard to not do, especially since you can’t even see their wings. So needless to say, it happens often enough so that the Angels are starting to get pissed off at how many humans come to them to fix it.

But that’s kind of the price they have to pay, Harry guesses as he walks past Josh and tries not to listen in on his conversation with the Angel in front of him. They came to earth so that they could blend in with humanity and learn how to live like humans. How could they just expect that things like this wouldn’t happen? They shouldn’t, and they totally shouldn’t get so bothered about overruling. They’re already considered rebels by their own kind as it is. What’s one more thing to add to that reasoning?

\- -

Josh is in his Math class. He comes in late, shoulders hunched and textbooks clutched in his arms as he walks to his seat, closely followed by the tiny red-head that he claimed earlier. She smiles weakly at whoever catches her eye before she sits down in the seat beside him. Her back is straight and her feet are flat on the floor and if she weren’t an Angel, it would probably be an uncomfortable way of sitting, despite the fact that it’s the ‘proper’ way. But she looks as comfortable as she can be and Josh just looks like he’s ready to throw himself in front of the next moving vehicle. Not that Harry blames him. He’d probably feel that way if he had an Angel following him around and thinking that they’re ‘soul mates’ when in reality it was just bad timing and poor judgment of space.

Harry’ssister never had to go through this. Angels didn’t co-habituate with humans until a few years ago – well after his sister Gemma had graduated high school. Harry was a freshman, and classes had been in progress for two weeks already when the announcement came. Ever since that one angel Gabriel had come down and made a whole new life for himself in Manchester without causing any real disruptions, people kind of figured it would only be a matter of time before more of them tried to do the same. And it happened in September. And three months later, a civil war broke out among them and Harry has found himself wondering how long it will take for everything to go to shit. Angels are powerful. One wrong move and they could destroy an entire town.

After class, Josh still doesn’t hide his irritation. He slams books closed and shoves them into his backpack with more noise and dramatics than necessary. Harry takes pity on him and decides he’ll totally email him all the answers for the homework due tomorrow. He’s almost positive that Josh won’t be getting much homework done tonight.

Harry is almost out of the room when Josh and his Angel catch up to him. “Hey mate,” Josh says tiredly, “I’m not going to make it to History this afternoon. My mom’s picking me up and we’re going to try and sort this whole thing out as soon as possible. Can you get the work for me and let me know the homework?”

Harry shrugs, “Yeah, sure.” He glances at the girl behind Josh and tries to put a name to her face but he really can’t. Most Angels look identical to him. This could be Anna. Or Grace. Or Ava. “I’ll email you the answers so you don’t have to worry about it.”

Josh looks relieved at first, but then, as if suddenly remembering his manners, he straightens up and turns to grab the Angel by the arm and pulls her forward. She barely reacts with anything more than a smile at him. “This is Eve, by the way.”

“Hello,” Eve says serenely, leaning into Josh’s side. And that’s all she says.

Harry nods in acknowledgement and then starts walking again. He’s going to be late for English and he’s been late three times this week already so he really can’t afford it. Josh shouts something to him about him being a life-saver and Harry waves a hand back at him in response, hoping that it’s appropriate. He keeps his hands in his pockets as he walks down the hall. There are very few Angels in comparison to humans in this school but he still can’t risk accidentally bumping into one and claiming them and having to go through the overruling process. He’s heard things about it; about how annoying it is and how stupid and pointless it is. He’d rather avoid it completely. He’d rather just avoid Angels in general completely.

\- -

At lunch, Niall talks about his girlfriend. Or, the girl he wants to be his girlfriend but is totally too afraid to ask out. Harry has heard all about her a million times and he’s told Niall to just go for it just as many times but his suggestions go ignored. So he’s taken to zoning out while Niall talks about the awesome thing she did in their Chemistry class and instead watches the small table of students by the cafeteria doors.

It’s occupied by Angels – six of them, to be specific – and they’re all eating the exact same thing. It’s exactly what they do every day – Harry isn’t sure why he’s finding them to be so interesting all of a sudden. It could be the fact that none of them look like they’re speaking. Or, it could just be the fact that they’re all doing homework. Who does homework during lunch?

“I feel like once I ask her out, things will be weird between us and that’s the last thing I want to happen and you are totally not even listening to a word I am saying right now, are you?”

A shove in the ribs is enough to bring Harry out of his daydreaming and back to reality and the fact that Niall is glaring at him and awaiting a response. “Yeah, sounds great,” Harry says, nodding and putting on his ‘no I’m totally listening to you’ face. But he figures out pretty quickly that his response was definitely not the right one. “Sorry. I’m a bit distracted today.”

“Clearly. But why? Do you have a test or something today?”

“Honestly? I have no idea,” he admits. Sure, it could be what happened with Josh earlier that’s distracting him. But he can’t really pinpoint it. Little does he know, though, is that in fewer than twenty four hours, a new presence in his life is going to flip him upside down.

\- - -

At home, Harry is the golden child. It’s kind of annoying, honestly, with his mom constantly fawning over him and she’s still doing his laundry and making his bed and cooking him dinner, even though he’s seventeen and a senior in high school and will be going off to college in less than a year. But hey, if she wants to baby him? Fine. It makes life a little easier for him, really.

And his step-dad does it too, just not nearly as badly as his mother. He bought Harry a car last summer and he lets Harry work at his law firm on the weekends and gives him money every so often. It infuriates Harry’s older sister, but there’s not much they can do to protest. She's already moved out and living down in London for school. She doesn’t visit very often anymore.

“How was school?” Harry’s mother asks when he walks into the kitchen. She’s standing at the kitchen sink, rinsing off dishes to put into the dishwasher. “Anything interesting happen?”

Harry rolls his eyes as he sits down at the table and grabs an apple from the bowl in front of him. “Well, I took my English quiz that I was studying for yesterday. And the football team still sucks. But our dance team is apparently rising in popularity and talent. That’s just according to the morning announcements, though.”

He smiles to himself as she turns around from the sink to glare at him. She just wants to hear about the whole Josh situation and he’s well aware of that. She probably heard about it through one of her friends and wants to know the details.

“You are such a little brat, you know that?” She tells him, but he knows she’s only joking with him. “I heard about the Lancaster boy. Such a shame, isn’t it?”

Harry shrugs, taking another bite out of his apple. “I guess so. I mean, he’s not the smartest guy in our grade so it wasn’t very surprising, you know? Still sucks that they have to actually go through the trouble of getting it overruled.”

“I can’t even imagine how frustrating it must be, though,” his mom continues, sounding a little too sympathetic towards someone she doesn’t even really know. “And the poor Angel, too. She must be terribly confused about the whole thing.”

Harry has never really put much thought into Angels and their feelings. “Whatever. I’m going upstairs. Call me when dinner’s ready?”

His mom agrees and then he’s gone, taking the stairs two at a time and heading up to his bedroom so he can work on that history homework and email it to Josh. He probably won’t be in school much over the next few days but once he’s back, teachers will expect to see his work done and if Harry can help him out a bit, then he’ll consider it his good deed for the week. Maybe month. He’ll see.

It’s in the middle of his English essay that he gets a new email sent to his cell phone. And when he opens it, he sighs in annoyance. It’s from his school. It’s about a new student entering the twelfth grade. An Angel. And because Harry has the best fucking luck on the planet, he’s been assigned the empty locker next to his. He scans through the email again, taking in the few sentences that warn him about claiming and other things that involve Angels, and he wants to punch himself in the face. Do they think he doesn’t know all of these things already?

\- - -  
“His name’s Louis.”

Harry hadn’t even realized he’d been staring. He blinks a few times and lifts his head, comprehending the fact that his eyes had been trained on the boy across the room for a while – possibly even a few minutes. The look Niall is giving him tells him that it was definitely close to five.

He clears his throat and shrugs his shoulders before turning a little bit to the side to keep the Angel out of sight. “He has the locker next to me. I have yet to actually see him there, though.”

It’s not that Harry is complaining. Because really, having an Angel locker buddy? Not appealing in the slightest. So the fact that this new guy seems to be avoiding Harry just as much as Harry wants to avoid him? Stellar. However, he knows they have to interact at some point and he’d kind of like to get it over with today.

“Considering he’s an Angel, he probably doesn’t have to go there very often,” Niall reminds him and Harry scrunches up his nose in distaste. He always forgets about their superhuman abilities. He doesn’t really like being reminded of them. It just makes them that much more intimidating. He likes to keep them on his level.

“Well whatever, he seems normal enough…”

As normal as an Angel can get, really. Louis is sitting at the table with the six other Angels that Harry was watching the day before. He falls into the same pattern as them – similar clothing, identical food choices, and is even doing his homework like the rest of them. It’s so strange, yet completely in character for them that Harry doesn’t even think twice about it. Even his looks follow the patterns – flawless skin, perfectly styled hair and bright eyes and perfect posture. He seems to be as normal as Angels come. That’s something to be grateful for, at the very least.

“Just don’t claim him, Harry,” Niall warns, crumpling up his paper bag just as the warning bell rings. “I don’t need you crying to me about how your hand accidentally got stuck under his wings while you were getting your math book and now he’s following you around like a lost puppy. Got it?”

“I’m not an idiot,” is all Harry can say before Niall is walking away from him towards the cafeteria doors. And what Niall said should definitely be insulting, but Harry chooses to ignore that. Niall is looking out for him, that’s all. He didn’t mean for it to sound rude. Because he knows better than anyone else would that Harry is probably the last one in the entire school who will ever accidentally claim an Angel.

\- - -

They meet at the end of the day, as Harry is pulling books out of the bottom of his locker and shoving them into his backpack. He has a small pile of college applications in one of his folders and he has an appointment with his guidance counselor in two minutes so he can start filling them out and getting everything together. If everything goes according to plan, Harry will be down in London or all the way across the ocean in California at this time next year.

“San Diego State is a highly recommended school,” comes a voice from beside him and Harry freezes. He looks at the folder in his hands and upon seeing that there absolutely no piece of paper visible to the human eye sticking out of it, he realizes that it has to be his Angel buddy. He takes a calm, steady breath and takes another glance at the sneakers that are in his view and God – why is he so close? He’s never been in such close proximity to an Angel before and he’s not so sure if he’s comfortable with it.

“Y-yeah,” He manages to stutter, continuing to finish up packing his books. “I’ve heard good things.”

There’s no response, so Harry risks a glance up at the boy beside him and he freezes again. Fuck. He’s so fucking screwed. Because it would be just Harry’s terrible luck that they would give him not only an Angel locker buddy, but an Angel locker buddy who also happens to be really fucking attractive. Like, ‘wow you’re gorgeous fuck me now’ attractive. This is going to be a disaster.

He’s having trouble opening up his locker, Harry notices. Which is strange, because Angels are typically just generally very bright and can figure out most things just by watching someone else do it. But this one is just staring at the lock with a blank expression, as if he can just wish it open. Harry is about to stand up and offer assistance and explain the exact way to open up a lock, but Louis is so far ahead of him that it actually makes Harry’s head spin. The lock clicks open without anybody touching it and the Angel looks so pleased with himself that Harry thinks he might combust.

“I practiced that all week,” he informs Harry with a nod in his direction. “My brothers informed me that locks are difficult to open, but that wasn’t as bad as I anticipated.”

Harry blinks. “Well when you do it the normal way…”

He tilts his head to the side, and curiously asks, “Normal way?”

“As in actually putting the code in and pulling the lock open. Like a normal human being.”

Louis truly looks confused by this and Harry almost feels bad about being the cause of his confusion. But if the guy wants to even slightly fit in with normal people? Yeah, opening locks with your mind isn’t really going to help you at all. So he stands up and pulls his backpack onto his back and closes his locker. “Watch.” He relocks it and makes sure the Angel is watching him. “You put the combination in,” he explains, twisting the dial to the right numbers, “And then after the last number, you just-”

He pulls it open and looks back at his new locker neighbor and finds him in the same position he’s been in for the past few minutes. Head tilted, eyes narrowed. If this is going to be an everyday occurrence, Harry wants nothing to do with it.

“Human ways are a bit puzzling,” Louis says, looking up at Harry with a wary expression and he probably doesn’t even know it but he’s totally blushing and biting his lip and wow okay, way to make yourself suddenly ten times hotter.

“You’ll get used to it,” Harry assures him quickly and starts to back away, “See you around.”

“Goodbye, Harry.”

Harry is halfway down the hall before he realizes – he never even told the guy his name.


	2. Chapter 2

“Aside from the college thing, how’s everything else going for you, Harry?”

Harry shrugs. “Fine.”

His guidance counselor does not look very convinced. In fact, she rolls her eyes and leans back in her desk chair and waits for him to give her a better answer. She’s known him since freshman year. He really can’t get away with one word responses anymore.

“Okay, fine. Everything’s going well. I mean, aside from the fact that someone gave the locker next to me to an Angel and thought it’d be fine to inform me through email. But hey, no big deal. My life can carry on unaffected.”

“Harry, I’m sure you’re over exaggerating. Louis is our newest student and he deserves to be treated the same as any other student. Just…you know. Don’t touch those wings.”

Harry slumps in his seat. “I shouldn’t have to worry about these things. This just adds more stress to my life. I’m applying to college – shouldn’t I be calm and cool and collected at this time in my life?”

Mrs. Bradley rolls her eyes again. She does that a lot, Harry realizes. Whenever he’s around her, at least. “Yes, but don’t you think it would be kind of you to help Louis feel more welcome? You know as well as I do that the students here are not quite as willing to be friendly towards Angels -”

“Yeah, because they’re terrified that one wrong move will get them stuck with an Angel thinking they’re soul mates and having to go through that God awful process of getting the whole thing overruled and, in the process, shatter some poor Angel’s hope that they’ve actually really been claimed. Sounds so appealing.”

“Claiming an Angel isn’t that bad,” Mrs. Bradley tries to protest, but even she doesn’t sound very convinced. “Having a soul mate-”

“That can barely figure out how to open a lock without using his freaky mind powers? Yeah, no thanks. I’d like to go to college and graduate before I even think of finding a ‘soul mate’, let alone finding one now who can barely function in this world.”

Of course, Harry is talking about the Angel he happens to share locker space with. But Mrs. Bradley totally doesn’t need to know that. Right? That’s just what he’ll tell himself.

\- - -

His appointment with his counselor is cut short when she gets a phone call from another student’s parent concerning their grades. He trudges out of the school with his backpack and his sour attitude and hopes that by the time he gets home, his mom will have dinner ready. He's starving and miserable and he just really wants to eat and go to bed and pray that tomorrow morning all the Angels will go back to Heaven and stop fucking up Harry's life. He knows it won't be happening but it's a nice thought.

He's starting his fifteen minute walk home when he sees them in the school parking lot. Three Angles, one being Louis. The other two look familiar, but Harry can't put a name to their faces. They're getting into the back seat of a black SUV, and Louis is laughing at something one of the others has said. Harry blinks. He looks even more attractive than he did before, if that's possible. Harry has no idea who the other two are, but he's going to assume that they're his family. He doesn't know very much about them, but he has heard of Angels having families.

Either way, from this distance Louis looks normal. He looks like a guy that Harry would totally go for and totally ask out. But despite that, he's not normal. He's not a normal guy. He's an Angel who has no idea what human life is really like.

-&-

Harry manages to last a full four days without coming into contact with the Angel again. He times his visits to his locker when he knows that Louis won’t be there – and he only knows that he won’t be there because he kind of had to stalk him a little bit to find out his schedule. Most of it was easy – he has two classes plus lunch with Harry and one class with Niall. He’s a quiet guy, for the most part. He only talks if you speak to him first and he doesn’t answer questions in class and he barely even does anything more than breathe and even sometimes that is questionable. He always has his homework done and he always finishes tests and quizzes with time to spare and he eats lunch with the same people every day. He seems normal. But Harry knows better than that.

His second encounter comes in History, all thanks to his teacher. Mr. Benton starts the class off at exactly 10:40 by passing out papers and when Harry gets one passed back to him, he mentally groans and throws himself off the Empire State Building. He glances to his right, sees the empty seat that Josh would typically be sitting in and he knows that if he were actually in class, he’d be having the same reaction.

The top of the page says “Group Project” and Harry knows that there’s little to no chance of his teacher letting them pick their own partners. Josh is the only person in the room that Harry would actually want to work with, so he knows that this has a very high possibility of turning out to be a disaster for him. And it does, thirty seconds later, with six spoken words.

“Harry, I paired you with Louis.”

The whole class is silent – it’s a well known thing that teachers typically don’t pair up their students with Angels. That would cause so many unnecessary problems and it just makes sense not to. But Mr. Benton doesn’t seem to care about this and he just carries on in giving out partners for the assignment and Harry slinks down in his seat, glaring at the person in front of him. The second this class lets out, he’s going straight to his counselor and demanding that she talk to his teacher about this because this is just so many levels of unfair. How is he supposed to get a decent grade when he won’t even be able to concentrate with a fucking Angel next to him?

The rest of the class gets distracted again once they start receiving their partners and Harry looks to the back of the classroom, finding the Angel sitting still and looking so confused and so out of place that Harry almost feels bad for a millisecond. He’s watching the teacher, probably waiting for more of an explanation about this ‘project’ but Harry knows he isn’t going to be getting one. So he takes it upon himself to grab his books and move to the back, into the always empty seat beside him, and explain what’s going on. This should be interesting.

“So, hey,” he starts off with, and the Angel quickly looks over his way, eyes bright and curious. “So we’re partners for this…thing.” Harry looks down at the paper he was given. It says something about rewriting a part of history and something about a movie but he’ll worry about the details once they actually sit down and do it. “It shouldn’t be that hard.”

Louis still looks more than a little bit confused. He only enforces that by tilting his head ever so slightly and saying, “I’m very confused.”

Well this is great. “Group project. We work together to get a good grade. Understand?”

That explanation seems to help his understanding a bit, because he sits up straight again and nods his head eagerly, saying, “So group effort. I understand that.”

"Look, Lou, it-"

Cue head tilt and bewildered expression. Harry groans. This is getting tiring. "What now?"

"You called me Lou...."

Harry blinks. "Short for Louis... It's a nickname... It's easier to say." He wouldn’t have said it if he knew it would cause this much confusion.

"Is it customary to give one a nickname? What can I call you?"

Okay, this is really starting to get out of hand if you ask Harry. If he has to explain to this guy every single little thing? Yeah, not exactly appealing. "No- I mean yes, we give people nicknames. But no, you don't give me one. It's just Harry. My name can't be shortened any more."

Louis nods slowly, as if he understands but Harry knows he doesn't. Not really. "Right... So my sister Charlotte-"

"You could call her Lottie. Get it?" He doesn't wait for Louis to respond. "Anyway, our project is due in a month. We have to work on it together to get it done. So we have to meet up outside of school. Like on weekends. Is that going to be an issue for you?"

"It should be fine, barring any form of interruption from my extended family."

And Harry knows that means 'the rest of my relatives who hate that we mingle with humans and want us dead'. But he just nods and carries on as though he knows absolutely nothing. "So we should meet up after school tomorrow. We can go to my place."

"Your place of residence?"

"I...yeah. Sure. Whatever," Harry shakes his head as he tears a piece of paper from his notebook. Louis is watching his every move, head still tilted and expression still bewildered, as though he still can't quite grasp the whole nickname thing.

He writes down his address as clearly as possible, with hopes that someone in Louis's household can figure it out and get him there at some point. "Come over around 4? I can order pizza for dinner."

"That sounds nice," Louis expresses, and does truly sound like he means it - sounds like it's actually the nicest thing he has heard all day. He holds the piece of paper as though it's a lifeline and smiles at Harry just as the bell rings, ending the class. Harry barely returns the smile, bolting out of the chair and leaving the room as soon as the path is clear. Niall is going to get a great laugh out of this one.

\- - -

The following day, Harry skips history. It's not quite on purpose - sure, he signed up for a counseling session at the exact time the class started but hey. That's the earliest time she had open. So Harry took it and he totally didn't feel bad about it. Until his counselor told him he was being selfish and he should be honored that Mr. Benton thinks he's competent enough to do a project with an Angel. And then to top it all off, she reminded Harry about how confused Louis must be and it would be nice if Harry could give him a little bit of guidance. Sure, Harry will give him some guidance but he has a pretty good feeling that the guy is going to need a lot more than Harry can give. That's just Harry's outlook on the whole thing. But nobody seems to care about what he thinks anymore.

And that's how he ends up saying hi to Louis in his other two classes and even during lunch. He introduces him to Niall, but that was kind of a disaster because Niall wanted nothing to do with the Angel and sort of walked away mid-introduction to go hit on the girl he's stalking. However, a difference won't be made in a day, he reminds himself. Louis has plenty of friends already anyway. Sure, they might all be Angels and Harry is pretty sure he considers at least two of them his siblings but whatever. Not the point. The point is, Harry is actually trying to be a decent human being for once. This better go on his resume.

"I'll see you at four, right?" Harry asks when he accidentally runs into Louis at his locker at the end of the day. His timing was off today. "My place is easy to find so I'm sure you'll have no problems."

"Liam is driving me; he informed me he knows how to get there."

"Okay," Harry nods, unsure how else to react. He has no idea who Liam is or even if he goes to this school, but he'll assume it's the brother Louis mentioned yesterday. "See you later then"

He gives Louis a slight wave, walking backwards towards the exit at the end of the hallway. Louis waves goodbye and goes back to struggling with his lock. He's left the whole 'mind trick' shit behind and seems to be doing things the old fashioned human way. Harry should probably help him, but he can't bring himself to. He stalls for a minute, stares at Louis's profile, curses him for being so attractive, and then makes a run for it.


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't know how I feel about this..." Harry's mother trails off and she does a bad job of lying. She knows how she feels and so does Harry and Louis will probably know the second he walks through the door, that's how obvious she is being.(On second thought, he probably won’t) She doesn't feel comfortable about having an Angel in her house. Harry can only blame her a little bit - it is a bit weird - but she doesn't really have a choice. Unless she wants Harry to get a bad grade on this project.

"Well we're going to just stay up in my room the whole time so you'll barely even know he's here. Promise," Harry tells her, giving her a pat on the back. She rolls her eyes and pushes him towards the living room.

"Don't worry about it Harry. Just get your project done and keep it safe, okay?"

He takes that to mean 'don't be a fuck up and claim him or else I'll be really pissed at you' and nods in agreement. Claiming Louis is probably the last thing he will ever want to do. He won't be making that mistake any time soon.

When the doorbell rings, Harry's mother jumps in surprise and holds her hand over her heart dramatically as she inhales sharply. "Okay Harry...remember-"

"Hands to myself, don't fuck up your life, keep three feet between us at all times. I got it."

She glares at his careless way of wording what she considers a serious situation, but she keeps her mouth shut and takes her stack of magazines off the kitchen counter and heads out to the backyard to read and tend to her flower garden. She'll stay out there as long as an Angel is in her home, Harry knows.

Louis is standing on the front steps when Harry opens the door, which is what Harry expected. What he didn't expect, however, is the box of donuts in his hands. 'Dunkin Donuts' is branded on the top of the box and Harry squints at it, trying to figure out if this kid is serious or not.

"Hello Harry," Louis says cheerfully, clutching the box a little bit tighter. "I brought you food. Liam mentioned it would be a wise idea to bring-"

Harry ignores the rest of his sentence, catching sight of a boy standing on the sidewalk in front of the house, watching Louis and Harry's interaction. He’s mostly watching Louis, and he looks curious more than cautious. He's one of the boys Louis eats lunch with everyday and one that he saw Louis get into a car with last week. "Is that your brother?" Harry questions slowly, unsure of whether or not he should even bother.

Louis nods immediately. "Liam. He brought me here. I tried calling him Li, like a nickname but he didn't like it very much so I probably shouldn't anymore."

Harry blinks. "Did you guys walk here?"

"He told me it would be best if I learned the way here so I could do it on my own next time. I'm supposed to keep to human traditions as much as I can."

"So - oh." Harry furrows his eyebrows as he looks back at the now empty sidewalk where Louis's brother had previously been standing. Fucking creepy Angels, Harry thinks as he stands aside and motions for Louis to come in. "We can work in my room."

"Your home is wonderful," is the first thing Louis says when Harry closes the door and locks it. "It is very... Calm."

Louis has wide eyes and a fascinated expression and Harry can already feel his patience take a hit. "Calm. Right. Well my mom likes to think she's a professional decorator so. Anyway. Upstairs. Oh, and bring the donuts."

"I intended to," Louis says, with that trademark head tilt. "What would I have done with them?"

"Put them in the kitchen. Because food goes in the kitchen. Normally. But we are bringing them upstairs because I'm hungry. Get it?"

"Yes," he says, but Harry knows he doesn't really. But Harry doesn't care because it isn't his job to teach Angels how to function in a normal house.  
\---

It's kind of like dealing with a child, Harry has concluded. Because Louis gets confused over the simplest things and he becomes fascinated over other things and it's just... It's exhausting. Painfully exhausting. There are only so many times he can go over how to use a computer.

"This is amazing," Louis says, pressing down on the 'c' key and watching it show up on the screen. "I believe my brother John has one of these but he will never let me in his room so I can't be positive. He's always praying. He gets nervous about us being here. Especially Zayn.”

“Nervous?” Harry finds himself asking, and he almost bites his tongue. He won’t lie – he’s curious. “How many of you are there, anyway?”

Louis blinks and tilts his head. “Millions,” he says, so bluntly that Harry wants to smack him.

“I mean in your family.”

“Oh! There are five of us here on Earth. Close to two hundred in the whole family, though.”

It’s Harry’s turn to be baffled – he shakes his head and goes back to his computer, typing in some key phrases to help him find some information on the American Revolution. “There can’t be two hundred Angels in your family.”

“Why not?”

He looks at Harry for an answer, and Harry finds that he really can’t even give him one. He was stupid to say that. How would he fucking know if Angels can have two hundred per family? For all he knows, there could be thousands. He kind of feels stupid now. “I…you’re right, no, I take that back,” he mumbles, and then clarifies, “I believe you.”

Louis gives him a happy little smile and gets back to work on sorting through the handouts that their teacher provided for them. For someone who’s just visiting Earth for the first time, he definitely knows a lot about its history. He sorts the handouts by time period and picking out the sheets they need for their particular presentation. He’s more efficient than Harry ever thought to give him credit for.

Harry makes sure to keep a good amount of space between them. Louis doesn’t seem to notice, not even when he reaches out for a new pencil and Harry practically throws himself backwards to get out of the way. He finds himself blushing when Louis settles back down to writing again. He’s being overdramatic. You can’t claim an Angel just by touching its skin.

After a half hour of silence, Louis speaks again. “I think you were just confused about what exactly our definition of ‘family’ is,” he explains simply, sitting on his knees, back straight. He catches on to Harry’s confusion, because he adds, “When you questioned me giving the number two hundred as a response-”

“Oh.” Harry doesn’t care. That much. Okay maybe a little bit. But barely at all. “So what is it, then?”

“My family and your family differ in many ways – but mainly in the fact that we’re not nearly as…” He struggles to find a word, and Harry can’t supply him with it because he has no idea what he’s going for. He bites his lip, lets out a sigh and simply says, “We don’t like each other all that much.”

Harry can understand that. He’s heard all about their Civil War. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, not all human families like each other very much either.”

Head tilt. “Why would that make me feel better?”

“You’ll learn pretty quickly that humans find enjoyment in other people’s suffering.”

The sad look on Louis’s face proves even further how innocent he is. That’s going to be his downfall, Harry decides, as he resists the urge to just take Louis and kiss him and claim him then and there (nothing to be concerned about). He’s so unaware of humans and their way of acting and doing things and treating one another that his Earth vacation should probably end before he gets in over his head.

\- - -

"This past week sucked ass, Harry. You don't even know how much I appreciate these, dude." Josh shakes his head, mumbling under his breath as he rifles through his backpack and pulls out a folder. He shuffles with the papers that Harry handed him and slips them into one of the folder's pockets. "Don't ever claim an Angel, man. It will never be worth it, I swear to God."

Harry shrugs and flips absently through the pages of his history text book. He can practically feel Louis's eyes on him, watching him. "Trust me. Not happening."

"I had to have a fuckin conference meeting. With Angels. It was like... A really, really bad LSD trip."

"What happened? If you don't mind-"

"First they tried to tell me it was my fault and that they couldn't do anything for me," Josh says quickly; and Harry realizes he was stupid for even thinking that the boy wouldn't want to talk about it. "They're getting pretty sick of us and our accidents, apparently. They wanted me to just live and deal with it. But my mom was able to talk me out of it."

Josh's mom is a lawyer. Pretty convenient. Harry has to remember that for himself. Just in case. "Who's 'they'?"

"The superiors. The top bosses. The one I met with called himself Adam. He wasn't happy but thankfully he just fixed it and let me be on my way."

"Fixed it? How exactly-"

"Good morning, class," Mr. Benton says loudly, announcing his presence in the classroom. Josh gives Harry a look like 'I'll tell you more later' and Harry can't help but notice that the Angel he had claimed is nowhere in sight.

\---

"What do you think happens to the Angel when they overrule a claiming?" Harry finds himself asking Niall during lunch. They're joined today by some girl named Cass (Jess? Trish? Whatever) who is apparently head over heels for Niall. Harry thinks that's her name, at least. He finds himself not caring. He's sure Niall doesn't give a shit either.

"No idea," Niall shrugs carelessly, "Never thought about it."

"Does it matter?" the girl asks in an annoying voice and Harry just glares at her. She shuts up pretty fast.

"I'm just thinking. The one Josh claimed is gone. She had been in my English class and she wasn't there today. What do you think happened?"

"Dude, since when do you care? Angels come and go all the time and you've never questioned it. Why the sudden interest?"

Harry shrugs, but his eyes go straight to the table across the room that has five Angels - one being Louis. He watches the way Louis talks to one of the taller boys. The disproving look that he's wearing. The way he shakes his head and says what Harry thinks is a warning. The other boy just laughs and rolls his eyes leans back in his chair and Harry thinks that that one must be Zayn. The one that the other brother is always worrying about. He looks like trouble. Harry can tell.

Wait, since when does he think he can just assume things like that? Hang out with an Angel for a day, and suddenly he's an expert? Okay Harry, take it back a notch.

"I don't really care I guess," he explains to Niall, tearing his gaze from the table across the room, "Just never thought about it before. You know?"

Niall and his biggest fan share a look that tells Harry that he sounds crazy. And Harry doesn't blame them. He's pretty sure he's borderline crazy, all thanks to Louis.


	4. Chapter 4

Louis isn't in class on Thursday. No Angels are, actually, and normally Harry wouldn't even notice that. If anything, he'd hear about it and rejoice at the fact that he doesn't have to obsess over keeping far away from them. But today Harry sees Louis's empty seat in History and bites his lip and worries. Worries about what, he has no idea. But still. Worries.

He hasn't held a conversation with him since he left his house after working on their projects. It's not that he didn't want to. It's just... Weird. Louis is an Angel. A clueless, innocent, annoyingly confused Angel. But he's nice and Harry knows he means well. And even further, Harry knows that Louis wants to fit in here more than anything.

That's why they came here in the first place - to fit in and find out what human life is really like. But over the past few years, Harry has found that Angels don't realize just how difficult it is. They don't know how to put in the effort, and they just end up going back home. But Louis seems different. And Harry finds himself wanting to help him. He's gotta get over this fear of talking to him, first.

So first thing Friday morning, when Louis gets to his locker, Harry is right there waiting for him. He grins at Louis once they've acknowledged one another and leans back against his own locker, watching the Angel open his own with barely a struggle.

"I'm much better at it now," he says, his cheeks blushing and he probably doesn't even realize it. "I made Landon help me practice. I never realized something as simple as a lock could cause me so much confusion."

Landon. That's a new one, Harry thinks. Must be another brother, he figures. "So where were you yesterday? I was gonna suggest we work on the project, but you weren't there."

"Oh. There was a family emergency. I was needed elsewhere," Louis states, nodding to himself as he pulls a book off the top shelf of his locker. The way he says it tells Harry he's not saying another word about it, so he backs off. He probably doesn't really want to know, anyway.

"Well do you think you're free later this afternoon?"

"To work on our project?"

"Yeah. I could come to your place this time."

It's probably suicide, voluntarily going into a house full of Angels. But the words are out before Harry can think twice about it and he finds himself not caring too much.

Louis nods immediately, "Of course. I will give you my address and tell my brothers and-"

"Okay cool. Give it to me in class later," Harry says before Louis can have an aneurism over it. "See you."

"Good bye, Harry!" Louis shouts after him. People turn to look at him - both of them - and Harry ducks his head and hurries to his homeroom. He doesn't need all this attention.

\---

Louis and his family live ten minutes from Harry. When Louis handed him the paper with his information on it earlier in history, Harry bit his lip and tried not to laugh. Louis's handwriting is atrocious and the letters are just barely legible. Apparently just because you're an Angel does not mean you get good penmanship.

"I am really concerned about your well being," Niall tells him as they walk out towards the parking lot at the end of the day. "I'm also concerned about your mental state. Please be careful. Don't land yourself in a soul mate relationship. You know how much harder it is to get out of them these days."

Harry laughs. Niall can be dramatic. "Dude I honestly think you're in more danger of that than I am. That girl Cass that's been hanging around you? I got a bad feeling about her. Watch out - she might slip you something when you're not looking. If you know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah whatever. At least send me a text once you get home to let me know you're still single. Ok?"

"Fine. Deal. Honestly Niall, I probably won't have anything interesting to report."

\---

And that's totally a lie. The second Harry knocks on the front door, he knows he's in for an interesting Friday night. Possibly the most interesting Friday night of his life. Because the first thing he hears after he brings his hand away from the door?

"Answer it! It's probably the prostitute I called for!"

Harry blinks. This can't be the right house.

"Honestly, Zayn! Why do I even bother wasting my time praying for you!"

"Pray for me all you want! Makes no difference to me!"

Oh. It makes a little more sense now. There's a commotion on the other side of the door now, someone saying something about a whore and how expensive they are and something rams into it once or twice until finally, it opens and Harry is met with a shorter boy with dark hair and dark features and a face that Harry thinks was literally carved by God himself. And hey, when he thinks about that again, it probably was.

"You're way hotter than you sounded over the phone," the boy says, folding his arms over his chest. He shifts, rolls his shoulders and Harry thinks he sees a glimmer of something. No, he imagined that.

"I'm here for Lou," he explains quickly, tearing his sight away from the boy’s shoulders and pulling himself together. Now is not the time to start really going crazy.

"Who-? Oh. Louis?"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry. Louis. We're working on a project."

"Right. Sorry. I thought you were a prostitute."

"Well... Sorry to disappoint," Harry says. He offers a small smile and hopes that this guy doesn't smite him for not being a prostitute. Or something.

"He's fluttering around somewhere. I guess you can come in.”

Harry blinks. This guy? He can't be an Angel. "How kind of you."

He steps aside and lets Harry into the house and Harry eyes him wearily, pressing himself as close to the wall as possible as he steps inside. The boy gives him a weird look as he shuts the door, as if Harry is the freak here and not him.

“Zayn? What are you doing?”

The voice comes from the other end of the room, where Harry finds yet another boy standing in the doorway which leads to what looks like a kitchen. His eyes are narrowed and his eyebrows are scrunched up and he totally looks like one of those overbearing older siblings that watch your every move and try and act like your parent.

“It wasn’t the prostitute. Just louis’ school friend,” Zayn explains, sounding tired and irritated. “Don’t worry, big bro. Just letting him in and sending him upstairs. No funny business here.”

He turns back to Harry and rolls his eyes. “That’s just John. Ignore him. That’s what I do. Louis’ room is upstairs. First door on the right. He’s probably making his bed again. As if you care if his bed is made or not. Just compliment him on it, will ya? As much as I try telling him otherwise, he thinks making his bed is an impressive human thing to do.”

“Right…” Harry trails off, eying the boy at the end of the hall – John, as Zayn introduced him – and hesitates. “Nice to meet you,” he decides to say, nodding in his direction. It would have been rude of him to not say anything. Right?

John seems to relax at that. He relaxes his shoulders and once again, Harry sees that little glimmer of – of… he’s not sure what. But this time he swears he saw it. Right above his shoulders. Harry’s not a total idiot. He’ll take a guess and say it has something to do with his wings. And he knows he won’t be totally wrong on that. The concerning part is not he can’t figure out what it is – it’s that he can’t figure out why he’s seeing anything at all.

“Go upstairs before Louis decides to redo his entire room. For the fifth time,” Zayn groans, leaning his weight against the wall as if Louis’s actions truly cause him exhaustion.

“He’s just excited,” John protests, clearly not pleased with the way Zayn is talking about their other brother. “Forgive him for wanting to actually try and fit in here.” He sees the way Zayn opens his mouth to protest and quickly shuts him down. “In a normal, healthy fashion that does not compromise our beliefs.”

Harry ditches the little family feud before it can escalate any further. He’s barely been in this house for more than three minutes and already he can tell that that argument is one that takes place more often than not. Call him crazy, but he doesn’t want to get in the middle of a full blown Angel argument. For some reason, he thinks it wouldn’t quite go the way a normal family argument would.

Louis’s bedroom door is wide open when Harry gets up there, and Harry finds him standing in the center of the room, back to Harry as he stares at the wall opposite him. Harry opens his mouth, ready to call out his name and get his attention, but before he even can, the wall changes colors from plain white to aqua blue. Like – like fucking magic, and Harry gapes at it, can’t quite grasp it, until Louis turns around and sees him.

“Harry!” he exclaims, hoping up in surprise and his facial expression says it all – you totally were not supposed to see that. “Um – I was just…redecorating?”

His lame excuse is enough to snap Harry out of it, shaking his head and shutting his mouth as he drops his school bag on the floor. “Dude. You should have told me you were a professional redecorator,” he teases, trying to make light of the situation.

“I’m not-”

“Louis, I’m about to teach you something all humans are good at. Ignoring an awkward situation by making a joke out of it. Okay?”

“I don’t…”

Harry sighs. “Right. We’ll work on it.”

\---

"I don't understand how an entire country could have such upheaval over a simple thing like skin color," Louis says for the millionth time. He sighs again as he flips through the library books worn out pages. "Why did this war have to go on for so long?"

"I don't know, I wasn't there."

"It was rather gruesome. I tried to avoid the country during that time period. The American Revolution was much more fascinating-"

"Wait - what? You were there?" Harry stumbles over his words, this new bit of information almost too much for his brain to handle. He never thought about Angels and their ages but suddenly it occurs to him that duh, they have to have an age.

"Yes, that's what I said-"

"I thought you guys didn't really come to Earth before ... Before now."

"We didn't. But I was still around. Just... Not Like this. More of a spiritual kind of thing."

"How old are you?"

"I don't understand-"

"I mean, how long have you been alive?"

"Oh...Well I don't know the exact amount but quite a while- over two hundred years. John and Zayn and Landon have been around longer than Liam and I have."

Harry has so many more questions; he glances up at Louis, who's just watching him with an encouraging smile and that's all the encouragement Harry needs. "You and your brothers... Are you all like, blood relatives? Is that how it works?"

"No - not by blood. By faith. And more, for some of us. John and Landon and Zayn and Liam are mated. Like... Like humans' definition of soul mates."

"Zayn is mated? And he's calling up prostitutes? Isn't that like...Sacrilegious?"

At the mention of Zayn, Louis gets a pained look and hesitates before meeting Harry's gaze. "Zayn is troubled. He is having doubts and is falling away from what we put our faith in. As his mate, Liam does his best to lead him back but Zayn is strong willed. He'll come back in his own time. If he comes back."

"Oh. So I'm assuming he doesn't fight in your war, huh?"

"No - not really. Sometimes, when Liam asks him to, he will. But Zayn is content living like a normal human and forgetting that he's not one. He takes it too seriously sometimes, John tells me."

It's the first time that Louis has seemed older - no longer having that innocent, child-like quality to him that he so often has. He's been through a lot - Harry will have to try and remember that.

"Oh. And... And you have to fight?"

He doesn't want to hear the answer. He already knows - has had his suspicions for a while but to hear them said out loud? Confirmed? Yeah, he'd like to pass. But he asked. And of course Louis is going to answer.

"I do. Whenever they need me, I go. There isn't very many of us, so they need all the help they can get."

"You mean the rebel Angels, right?"

At that, Louis smiles. "Is that what you refer to us as?"

"Well... Yeah. I dunno who gave you that term but..."

"I like it. Sounds nicer than what they've taken to calling us."

And Harry finds himself nodding and feeling this odd sense of ... Almost of pride. Because he made Louis smile about something and for some reason, that just seems like a pretty good thing to be proud of.

Louis looks more relaxed around Harry than he ever has before (not that he was ever tense) and Harry lets himself do the same, sitting back on his knees and watching Louis. He sees it again - that shimmer of light that he is totally convinced has to do with their wings - and he doesn't think twice as he reaches an arm out to touch it. Louis flinches before he can get close enough and suddenly Harry's brain decides to join him again.

"Oh shit," he mumbles, taking in Louis's fearful expression, the way he has leaned backwards to avoid Harry's hand and fuck, what was he thinking? Was he even thinking at all? How could he just lose himself like that? "I um. I - I have to go."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Louis is so cute you’re probably going to die.

Harry stays in his house all weekend. He leaves his bed to get food and water and bring it back upstairs but other than that, he doesn't have any contact with his parents or even with Niall. He knows they're all concerned - his mom knocks on his door every hour or so to see if he wants to talk and Niall has been calling and texting him since Friday. But Harry doesn't want to deal with anybody - human or Angel - until he's figured out what's going through his head.

What happened with Louis on Friday is still bothering him on Sunday night. What was he even thinking, trying to touch wings that he thinks he saw? It was stupid and reckless and Harry is seriously considering asking Mr. Bennett to change his partner for the project. He can't keep hanging out with an Angel if he loses his head like that. Who knows what could have happened?

He would feel bad if he ditched Louis though, and he knows it. Louis is nice and clueless and innocent and so eager to learn that Harry would feel bad handing him over to some other classmate who wouldn't have the patience. Harry can handle him. It's just a matter of getting a grip and focusing.

So he won't switch partners, he decides as he ignores yet another phone call from Niall. He'll just have to really watch himself - make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

"Harry?"

Harry jolts at the sound of Louis's voice in his bedroom - looking up and finding the boy standing right there in the middle of his room. He stares at him, takes in his nervous expression and the way he's wringing his hands and - why is he so anxious and nervous?

"For someone who just magically appeared in someone else's bedroom, you're awfully nervous," Harry says calmly, despite his racing heart and confused thoughts. "What are you doing here?"

Louis hesitates, looking around the room and taking it in, as though he's never seen it before. His eyes finally settle on Harry again, still looking concerned. "I meant to arrive outside your house. I miscalculated-"

"Obviously. What happened to walking like a normal human?"

"The weather," Louis tells him, gesturing towards the window, "It was unpleasant."

Harry can hear the faint sound of rain hitting the glass and he nods. "Fair enough. Still doesn't tell me why you're here."

"I felt badly about how we ended our work session on Friday." Harry flinches at the term 'work session'. "You caught me off guard - I wasn't expecting it."

"Expecting what?" Harry asks, getting up and heading over to his stack of DVDs by his TV. He's going with 'denial' on this one. "I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Well I thought... I thought maybe you saw my wings and had reached out to touch them and I... I reacted without thinking and I thought you left because I made you uncomfortable."

He's too fucking honest, Harry decides. He picks out a random movie and turns on the DVD player, wondering why Louis was never taught to just fucking let things go. "Right. Well no big deal. It was stupid to try and touch them anyway."

"Oh."

It's silent as Harry presses play and the movie starts up. He doesn't even know what he picked but he sits down on his bed and eyes Louis, waits for him to make the next move. He's trying so hard not to ask more questions - the big one being 'why the fuck did I see your wings in the first place?!' - so he bites his tongue and watches Louis sit down on the floor right in the middle of the room. Jesus Christ.

"You can sit down in the computer chair, Louis. Or on the bed. The floor isn't very comfortable."

The staring is definitely not something that Harry thinks he’ll be able to get used to. Ever. Because Louis is just sitting there on the edge of his bed, legs pressed closely together and back straight and he looks so uncomfortable it’s actually making Harry uncomfortable in return. His eyes are glued to Harry’s every move – reaching up to turn up the volume on the TV; closing his bedroom door; kicking his shoes off. It’s like he’s so interesting that Louis can’t bear to let him out of his sight. But Harry knows better – knows that that’s just the way Angels work.

“You’re uncomfortable,” Louis says, and it’s not a question. Harry has quickly learned that Angels aren’t very fond of asking questions, especially considering they almost always already know the answers. “I’m sorry.”

“Not gonna lie,” Harry admits, sitting down in his computer chair at his desk, “It is a little bit weird. But whatever – I don’t care.”

He thought about sitting down beside Louis on the bed, but being so close to him did not seem very appealing, so he opted not to. He knows Louis won’t care – he doesn’t know what feelings are, let alone know that they should be hurt by Harry’s action.

“You’re wondering why you could see my wings,” Louis states just as the movie starts up, hands still folded in his lap and back still straight. “Aren’t you?”

“Well…yeah. I guess. Why can I suddenly sort of see them?”

Louis smiles when he catches Harry’s eyes on him – searching for another glimpse of his wings, or something. “You’re not going to see them here. And you’ll probably never see them completely. But when an Angel feels safe, sometimes they’re relaxed enough for a human to see a glimpse of them. I was at home – I felt safe.”

“I saw Zayn’s, too,” Harry nods to himself, “And John’s. I get it now.”

Louis sits up even straighter, if possible, a gleeful look on his face as he does. “Oh good. I thought you would be upset with me. I’ll be more careful from now on.”

“Why are you apologizing? You didn’t do anything wrong, Louis. You have no reason to.”

“Well I was too relaxed – I let my guard down. I shouldn’t have –”

“Mate, if you want to ‘let your guard down’ in front of me, I don’t care. You’re allowed to do what you want, you know.” And the look that Harry gets in response clearly says ‘I am?’. He sighs and runs both hands over his face in frustration. “If you’re trying to be more human, you need to learn that humans do whatever the hell they want – whether they should or shouldn’t. You want to let your guard down and let me see your wings? Fine, do it. It’s my fault for trying to touch them last time. I won’t try it again, that’s for sure.”

“You’re different, Harry,” Louis says suddenly, tilting his head. “A good different. A very good different.”

Harry finds himself blushing, cheeks heating up faster than he can control and he turns his computer chair to face the TV so Louis can’t see him. “How am I different?”

“You’re much kinder than any other human I’ve met since I got here. Even John and Zayn noticed something different about you. We can’t pinpoint it. Zayn says you’re just trying to get in my pants but I told him that didn’t make sense because you seem to have plenty of pairs of pants and it would be silly if you were trying to take mine and John says your soul is much lighter than most people we encounter and –”

Harry has to stop him before it gets any more embarrassing. “Louis. You’re rambling,” he says loudly, turning around and hiding his face in his hands. This is ridiculous – he’s blushing over an Angel and how he thinks Harry is ‘different’ and – wait. His soul? “What about my soul?”

Louis perks up even more at Harry’s question, shuffling his feet and seemingly unable to contain his happiness. “Your soul. It’s lighter. Happier, you know?”

“My soul is happy?”

“Well all souls are happy,” he says as if it’s the most well known fact on the planet. “Most of the time, at least. But yours always seems to be. I told you – it’s lighter. Not color-wise. Souls don’t have colors. Yours just seems to have a lot less…bad things to hold on to.”

It’s weird (beyond weird, actually) to be sitting in his bedroom receiving a lesson on souls from an Angel himself. But Harry thinks that it probably shouldn’t be that weird. Angels. Souls. Whatever. He’s heard worse, he supposes. “You can see mine? My soul?”

“Of course I can. It’s lovely.”

Lovely. His soul is lovely. “Well…thanks. I’ve...I’ve never gotten a compliment on my soul before.”

Louis widens his eyes, “You should get a lot, it’s a great soul. I could compliment it more if you’d like-”

“No. No that’s fine,” Harry protests, finally deciding that the line has been crossed and he’d like to push them back over into safer territory. He sees the time on his alarm clock on his bedside table and cringes. It’s after eleven. If his mom hears that he has someone over, he’s dead. “I’m not sure if you’re sticking around, but either way we need to stop talking. If my mom finds out you’re here, she’s going to start asking questions and she’ll be pissed and I’d just really rather avoid that. So…staying or going?”

Harry finds himself not wanting him to leave. He’s not sure why he doesn’t want him to go, he just knows that he doesn’t. Louis is…interesting. And his obliviousness is kind of amusing. He’s easy to talk to. There’s just…something. Something about him. Harry can’t pinpoint it.

“I would love to stay,” Louis tells him, “And I can be quiet.”

It’s not weird or awkward or strange or unusual or…anything, really. It feels no different from the times that Niall has come over and watched a movie and hung out. Well, okay. A little different. But only because it’s not Niall sitting cross legged at the end of his bed, it’s an Angel. An Angel who can’t seem to grasp the concept of a DVD and animated cartoons and thinks that Johnny Depp is an actual pirate. Harry thinks he falls asleep around one, to the sounds of SpongeBob coming from his TV and to Louis still sitting on the edge of his bed.


	6. Chapter 6

Harry's alarm goes off at half past six that Monday morning. He's on his side, facing the wall and he groans when he realizes he's going to have to turn over and actually exert energy to put it on snooze. He runs his hands over his eyes and flops over onto his back as he reaches and slams his hand down on the button. The alarm silences and Harry goes back to trying to fall asleep for another five minutes - but he stops himself when he sees the shadow of another person at the edge of his bed. He stays frozen for all of ten seconds before he realizes exactly what's going on. Last night comes back to him - Louis, his magical appearing act, souls, compliments. Jesus Christ he feels like he's going insane.

"Oh good, you're awake," Louis says aloud before Harry can even sit up in his bed. "I was worried. I was unsure about how long humans tend to sleep for."

"You're still here?" Harry questions, sitting up and ruffling his hair so that it doesn’t appear quite so messy - at least he hopes.

Louis blinks. "Yes. You told me to stay..."

"Right. Here's another human lesson for you - when I fall asleep, and it's a school night, you should go home. Did you sleep at all?"

"No. We don't sleep."

And suddenly the whole situation becomes ten times creepier. "So... What'd you do all night?"

Louis shrugs (the first time Harry has ever seen him do that and if it were a different situation, he'd be proud). "I watched the yellow sponge on the TV. And you sleep. You had a nightmare - I stopped it."

"Great. Thanks. I'm glad you took it upon yourself to be a total creeper and stop my own dreams," Harry grumbles as he slides out of bed. He ignores Louis's obvious confusion as he starts getting dressed for school, pulling jeans on over his boxers and rummaging through his closer for a clean shirt. There's a small part of him (a very, very small part) that is trying to point out how well rested he feels. But an even bigger part is telling him that having an Angel watch you sleep is fucking weird and that should never happen again.

"You're upset."

"Good observation. Maybe you don't suck at reading humans like I thought you did."

"My ability to perceive emotions is higher than-"

"Whatever, you're right. I'm pissed. But it's not like you know that you're not exactly supposed to watch people sleep or stop their nightmares. You're going to end up like Edward Cullen. Creepy."

Louis tilts his head, "Who is Edward Cullen? Should I know him? Is he a friend of yours?"

Finally, Harry cracks a smile. "No, you shouldn't know him. Let's keep it that way."

\---

Eventually Harry manages to convince Louis that showing up at school together would be a bad idea, and he sends the Angel on his way at seven. The last thing he needs is someone giving him the third degree over why he's carpooling with an Angel. No thank you.

Louis apologizes to him at their lockers right before lunch, and the apology puts so much guilt on Harry's shoulders that he wants to drown himself.

"I didn't realize that stopping your nightmares and watching you sleep was overstepping a boundary. Liam told me. I just didn't like seeing your soul in such distress that I thought it would be a good idea to stop it. I apologize. I hope you can forgive me."

He's holding out a chocolate chip muffin wrapped up in a napkin and Harry cracks his second real smile of the day. He ignores the fact that both have been caused by the same Angel. "Thanks, Louis. Don't worry about it. You didn't know."

"I learn a lot from you," Louis tells him, eyes lighting up when Harry accepts the muffin. "Liam hopes you don't get sick of me like Zayn says you will."

"Why would Zayn say that?"

"I'm unsure of what he means, but he claims that when I don't 'put out' for you, you will get bored of dealing with me. I don't know what I'm supposed to be putting out where but I'd be happy-"

"Ignore Zayn," Harry interrupts him, cheeks flushing at the mere thought of Louis 'putting out' for anybody. "I promise I won't get sick of you."

Louis grins, but then he gets a concerned look on his face. "From what I have learned from my human studies... I believe that a promise is a serious thing. An honorable thing."

"Yes, Louis. Promises are meant to be honored. I won't break it. Okay?"

"Okay. That's the first promise I've ever received," he says gleefully before turning and heading back down the hallway towards his brother's locker. Harry's heart swells with pride. Louis has learned the concept of a promise. He realizes he might learn to regret that.

\- - -

Their history project is due in a week and they're a little more than halfway done with it. Turns out, having an Angel as his partner only benefited him. They know more about human wars than humans do. They don't get together at all during the week, simply because Harry just needs a little bit of room to breathe. Who would have thought that befriending an Angel would bring him so much exhaustion? It's just so hard keeping up with Louis sometimes. Harry often goes home with a headache.

During lunch, Niall invites him to a party. At first, Harry declines - he really should work on the project with Louis as much as possible. But Niall guilts him into it and the next thing Harry knows, he's going to be picked up at half past nine by Niall and on his way to the stupid party. It's not that he doesn't want to go. He just... Isn't really in the mood for it?

"It'll be fun," Niall said to him during lunch, while Louis was waving enthusiastically to Harry from across the lunchroom behind his back. Harry managed a small wave, but it didn't go unnoticed by Niall, who told him to "get a fucking grip and get ready to get drunk".

So that leaves Harry in Louis's bedroom after school, working on putting their project together and trying not to think about the party that he's being forced to go to.

Louis is good at distractions. He's just discovered the concept of glue. His fingers are covered in the sticky stuff and it's drying and he's pealing it off gleefully- like a kindergartener.

"You should probably try and get some glue on the paper," Harry advises, but there's no real warning or attitude behind it. He's almost as amused as Louis is.

"It's just so strange," Louis says for the hundredth time that afternoon. "Who knew these things could be so fun."

"Yeah well. Hey, what grade is Liam in?"

"He is in the twelfth grade - like us."

Harry nods. He had been meaning to ask ever since he noticed that the other Angel was in his gym class every Thursday. He keeps to himself and doesn't speak and Harry thinks that maybe he should try and befriend him. "He's in my gym class," Harry explains, despite the fact that Louis never questions anything ever. "He doesn't talk to anyone so I thought maybe I'd try next week."

Louis shows a sudden increase in interest then, sitting up and forgetting about the glue on his fingers. "That would be kind of you," he says eagerly, "I think ever since Zayn started his whole 'rebel against the entire Angel population' thing, he's been feeling extra lonely. He prays more than ever now. He could use a friendship like yours, Harry

Harry resists the urge to congratulate the Angel on sounding just slightly more human than he usually does, but he refrains. Instead he opts for, "I didn't know Angles could get lonely."

"We can't- not while we are in heaven, at least. But down here... When you're used to having thousands of your own kind around you at any moment, Earth can be pretty lonely. Especially when your mate is suddenly acting out and doing everything they aren't supposed to."

It sounds pretty terrible, but Harry won't say that out loud. "And... I don't want to insult you or anything but I've been wondering... Does God like... care that Liam and Zayn are both guys?"

Harry blushes as Louis starts laughing. It's the first time since they've become friends (friends?) that Harry has ever felt stupid about asking something. But he had to know. Anybody would want to.

"That, Harry, is the number one reason Angels make fun of humans so much."

"What?"

"It's just so amusing to us that humans actually think that God has the time to care about something as simple as gender. He created everything - wouldn't you think he'd just want his creations to be happy? And that's all?"

It's a stupid thing to question, Harry realizes, when you put it like that. And deep down, he knows he's always believed that. If everyone believed it? The world could have the potential to be a much more peaceful place.

"Be with the person who makes you happy and brings out the best in you. The person who leads you closer to becoming the best possible person you can be. That's all he really wants."

"Do you...like...know God?"

He feels like he's back in first grade. And it just makes him realize that while the Angels have a lot to learn from him, he has just as much he could learn from them.

"No," Louis informs him, "I've never seen him. But just because I never have doesn't mean that he's not there. There are plenty of Angels who have seen him. I know it's hard to understand but... I have faith. I hear his word. That's all I really need, I guess."

It's all so simple and complicated at the same time that Harry just wants to stop everything and go home and get ready to go out and get drunk and forget all this. But he can't. He's interested - curious. That’s what's going to be his downfall one day.

"What about the civil war? How do you think he feels about that?"

Louis sighs. "I don't know, exactly. But I don't believe that he could be upset. While I understand that our place is in heaven and that's where he intended for us to remain, I like to believe that if we're happy being here, he'd be okay with it."

"So you don't know exactly. Has he told any Angel how he feels about it?"

Louis looks sad suddenly, as if Harry has brought up a bad topic. "He hasn't appeared to any of us, or spoken to us, in months. Almost a full year now. That's mainly why our war has gotten so out of hand - nobody knows what's right or wrong and we're killing one another over it."

"A-Angels can die?" It's the most horrifying thing he's heard all day - the simple idea of Louis dying? He hates it. And he also hates that he hates it so much.

"Of course. But only an Angel can kill another Angel."

Harry bites his lip. Louis says he fights in that war whenever they need him. What if one day he doesn't show up to school, because he died fighting for what he believes in and Harry would have no idea? No idea that his Angel wouldn't ever be coming back - wait. His Angel? Time to take a step back.

"I- shit. I'm asking a lot of questions. I'm sorry," Harry says eventually, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. He got carried away there. That was stupid.

"Don't apologize , Harry," Louis says with a kind smile. "You didn't do anything wrong."

And that one sentence makes Harry feel the slightest bit better about everything - makes him feel a little bit lighter. And he thinks it must have some sort of affect on his soul too, because Louis gets this intense look on his face - almost as if he's reading him- and seems just a little bit happier. And that's enough to make Harry feel good for the rest of the afternoon.

\- - -

The party turns out to be held at a house in the upper class side of the neighborhood. The kid who lives there – Luke– is a nice guy, if not a bit naïve. His brand new white Mercedes sits in the circular driveway and it’s the first thing Harry notices when they pull up outside the house. He rolls his eyes – white? Really? What a grade A douche – and tries his best to ignore Niall as they get out of the car.

He’s not in a good mood. He left Louis’s house at a little after seven, after they finished their project. John had appeared in Louis’s bedroom at one point (without using the door. Harry is never going to get used to that) and asked Harry if he wanted to stay or dinner. The look on Louis’s face told Harry all he needed to know – Angels don’t eat dinner. Angels probably don’t eat at all. Or at least they don’t need to. And Harry blushed at the fact that this little family of Angels were going to sacrifice their normal behavior in order to make Harry feel more comfortable. He had to decline, though, as much as he didn’t want to. He promised Niall he’d go to the party.

He’s regretting it now, as he walks into the over-packed living room of the multi-million dollar home. It’s been a while since Harry has been to a party like this, and he definitely didn’t miss it. Niall slaps him on the back, gives him a look that says ‘aren’t you so glad you came?’ and it’s not sarcastic in the slightest.

A few hours pass by way too slowly for Harry’s liking. He sits with Niall in the kitchen, listening to the conversations about girlfriends and boyfriends and sex and alcohol and he’s not sure where the conversation is even going. He doesn’t include himself in it. He’s too busy sulking over his forth beer.

Josh is at the part too, sitting across from Harry and Niall at the table. He’s smashed – probably started drinking the minute school let out earlier and now he’s just building on it. When Niall gets up to go to the bathroom, that leaves Harry alone to listen to the conversations and when he finally tunes into them completely, he finds that he doesn’t really like what he’s hearing.

“It was almost as if no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t leave me alone, you know?” Josh is saying, and it doesn’t take much for Harry to realize he’s talking about the Angel he claimed the other week. “She like, had to do what I wanted. So awkward at first.”

Josh is drunk, and that alone should be enough to convince Harry that he doesn't really mean what he's saying right now. But Harry knows better - Josh means it all.

"It was weird," he's telling some girl beside him, "It was kind of like having a stalker, except in her head she was totally justified in following me around. She was always trying to do things for me and waiting for me to tell her what to do. So weird, I swear."

Harry tries not to get pissed off at the way Josh is talking about her - he didn't even know her, really. Josh isn't even saying anything that awful. Besides, it's kind of interesting. Harry sort of always wanted to know what happened.

"She was a pretty good lay, too," the boy laughs and the girl he's with does too and that just about does it for Harry. He slams his beer down on the table and Josh looks up in surprise.

"Mate!" he exclaims, barely coherent. "What's the issue?"

"Do you even hear yourself?" Harry questions, pulling his Harryet on. "You're talking about how helpless this Angel was - how she did everything and anything for you, even if she didn’t want to, and you're talking about having sex with her? Do you realize how sleazy you sound?!"

Josh shrugs and his girl friend looks at Harry like he's the biggest idiot walking.

"Well, you do. The fact that you took advantage of the fact that she was bound to you? Pretty low, Mate."

And Harry decides to just leave then, walking away from the table and heading for the door. Luckily, he avoids Niall and doesn't have to answer any questions about why he's leaving and why he totally pissed off Josh. But seriously - he's pissed. He wishes he had Louis with him. He has so many questions and he's dying to ask them and fuck. Now he's just stranded in rich-ville with no way home and no money for a cab.

"Where's my fucking Angel when I need him?" he grumbles as he sits down on the curb a few houses down the block. He stares at his cell phone, contemplating calling his mom and waking her up just to have her pick him up. She'd be furious. He'd be grounded for forever. Is it worth that?

There's a soft fluttering sound from behind him, and Harry ignores it - until someone is putting their hand in his shoulder and he almost falls into the street in his pathetic attempt to turn around fast enough.

"Are you okay?" Louis is asking him, standing over him and looking way too concerned. "You look sick."

"What the hell are you doing here? We're you following me? Watching me? What the fuck, Mate?"

Louis tilts his head as he says "You called for me. I heard you. You sounded like you needed me so I came."

"You... Heard me? How?"

"I'm an Angel, Harry," Louis reminds him with a smile. "Hearing prayers is practically what we were made for. You prayed, I listened."

"I didn't pray," Harry protests, pushing himself up from the ground. He looks at Louis, takes in his pristine jeans and nice white tee and fuck. He really doesn't make it easy, does he?

"Not conventionally, no," Louis agrees, "But you said my name and it must have sounded like a prayer, because I heard it."

And here he is, Harry realizes. This is what he wanted, wasn't it? He wanted Louis with him - wanted to talk to him and ask questions. So why is he so pissed that he's here?

"I can call John and Zayn and they can pick us up and drive you home. That's what you want, right?"

That stupid fucking head tilt again. Harry isn't sure he can take that anymore. He thinks it's the alcohol - hopes it is - that makes him shake his head 'no'.

"Can we just go to your place? I don't wanna be alone."

And Louis nods and smiles, clearly not quite understanding the situation at all. But Harry doesn't want to go home - doesn't want to hear his mom ask why he's home early or why he's not sleeping at Niall's. Plus, he just has so many questions that he can't possibly let go unanswered.

\- - -

Liam and Zayn pick them up at half past one on the morning. It's an hour after Louis claims he called them (using his freakish Angel powers or whatever) and Harry would have thought that Angels would have a better sense of direction. But they don't. Theirs actually might be even worse than Harrys and his is pretty freakin bad.

"Too many houses that look alike," Liam mumbles when Harry points it out. "Not exactly easy."

"Just be happy we rescued your sorry ass, Styles," Zayn adds in, turning around in the passenger seat to get a better look at him. "I could be doing other things right now. Other people, actually."

Liam visibly tenses as he drives (who knew Angels could drive?) and Harry can actually feel it. The tension hangs in the air like an awkward silence and Louis is looking out the window, pointedly ignoring what’s going on in the front seat. So Harry tries to as well. Must suck knowing your boyfriend is out screwing other people and doesn't even bother hiding it.

Zayn seems to notice Liam's sadness, because he stops glaring at Harry and turns back around and puts his feet up on the dashboard. He sits quietly for a few minutes before flipping on the radio. Then he slyly reaches his left hand out to take Liam's right one and suddenly all the tension in the car is gone. Just like that. Harry can breathe normally again.

"Harry is coming to our place," Louis says aloud a few minutes later, "That's fine right?"

"Aw, are you gonna have a sleepover?" Zayn teases, and then he scoffs. "As if we care what you do with your little human boyfriend. Actually, I encourage it."

Harry isn’t sure what this says about him, but he just shrugs off Zayn’s comments and goes back to staring out the back window. He’s been spending too much time around these Angels – too much time in their house. Who even does that? What human with common sense voluntarily goes over an Angel’s house, contemplates having dinner with them, and calls them when they need a ride home? Clearly, Harry lost his common sense sometime between the day he was assigned as Louis’s partner and now. He finds himself not caring, though, as he turns and looks at Louis next to him. He’s watching the houses go by, restless in his seat as if being in the car is confining.

Maybe he still does have common sense, Harry decides. Maybe before, his common sense was faulty, programmed wrong by all the people before him who told him that befriending Angels would be a stupid thing to do. Or maybe he is actually just going crazy. Whatever it is, Harry finds himself welcoming it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s for the interest in this fic. Please leave kudos and comments!! I wanna hear from y’all!

As expected, John's awake when they finally walk through the Angels' front door. He's in the kitchen, mumbling things about stupid teenagers and parties and reputations and Zayn is quick to defend them. Harry tries not to laugh but it's pretty amusing watching two Angels argue over the purpose of alcohol. While he's standing in the kitchen doorway witnessing it, that's when he catches sight of the tiny little symbols carved into the wood of the doorframe.

Harry's brain isn't up to its usual standards considering how much he drank, but he can figure out the general purpose of these symbols. Protection, if he had to guess. What they're being protected from? Harry is certain he doesn't even want to know.

"You're hungry," Louis says suddenly, giving Harry one of his super caring and concerned expressions that Harry is starting to expect half the time Louis speaks.

"How would you know that?"

"Your stomach. It's not pleased," Louis explains, and not a second later is Harry's stomach living up to it, growling in protest of not being fed for nearly six hours now.

"We can order pizza," Zayn says quickly, taking advantage of John's distraction to change the subject. "I'll do it!"

He's gone as soon as the words are out of his mouth and Harry rolls his eyes - why do they have to do that stupid disappearing act everywhere at any chance they get? But then he scolds himself. Because really - this is the only place they can do that without getting weird looks, isn’t it?

"I told you to print out directions," John scolds Liam, rolling his eyes as he pushes past them to get into the living room.

"How would I know my normally fantastic sense of direction would fail me in human situations?" Liam protests, following along behind him. Harry sticks next to Louis, wondering if Zayn really did go order pizza and if they're actually going to watch a movie. Harry's not sure that Angels know how to do either of those things.

"We can go upstairs and put on a movie," Louis says, as if knowing what Harry had just been thinking. He tugs Harry towards the stairs by the sleeve of his Harryet and Harry stumbles along behind him, trying to think about the way Louis's fingers slightly brush his skin.

Louis's room is the same as when Harry left it earlier the day before. His bed is neatly made, pushed against the wall. Harry figures it doesn't get much use, if any at all. There's a small flat screen TV on the wall above the computer desk and it's one of those new high tech ones. How these Angel's get money for these things, Harry thinks he doesn't need to know.

"We only own one movie - it was left behind by whoever owned this house before us," Louis says apologetically, lifting a DVD case from the desk. "Zayn claims it 'sucks and is a poor excuse for a movie' but I wouldn't know."

It's ‘Cloverfield’, and Harry shrugs. "Good enough." His head still feels sort of fuzzy but he thinks the alcohol is wearing off by now. It's not as hard for him to focus like it was when he left Luke's house.

Louis nods and opens the case, staring at the round disk inside. His cheeks turn red as he looks back up at Harry and confesses, "I don't know how to work the TV."

So they spend twenty minutes with Harry teaching Louis the basics of a TV and how to put a DVD on. Zayn comes in the middle of it, and while he pretends to be disinterested, Harry catches him paying close attention at some points during the 'fast forward and rewind' lesson.

When Harry asks if Liam will be joining them, Zayn snorts and Louis just shakes his head. "No. He's busy."

"Praying for me," Zayn adds, smirking as he does.

Harry isn't expecting what comes next. He almost doesn't catch the beginning of it, but thankfully he turns to Louis just in time to see him glare at Zayn and narrow his eyes as he says, "Shut up, Zayn."

Both of them stare at Louis, and a little bubble of pride rises up in Harry and he wants to reach out and hug him, congratulate him on finally saying something so human. Even Zayn looks impressed, and he doesn't try and argue back. Finally, Harry thinks he's actually getting through to Louis with all these human lessons.

Things do get weird again pretty quickly, though. Suddenly, in the middle of Louis putting a movie into the slot, he straightens up and freezes, eyes widening as it looks like he's having some sort of psychic vision or something equally as strange. However Harry totally wouldn't put it past Angels to have visions.

"I have to go," he says sadly, snapping out of his daze. "Landon wants me. I'll try and be fast."

And then he's gone - just like that, no goodbye or anything - and Harry finds himself wondering who the hell Landon is, and alone with Zayn for the first time since they've met.

Cloverfield isn't even that great of a movie. Harry is only watching so he has something to do- so he doesn't feel totally awkward sitting here with just Zayn and no Louis to start conversations. Zayn doesn't seem to be too concerned about being alone with Harry. He's sitting on the floor and munching on his fifth slice of pepperoni pizza in twenty minutes (they may not have to eat but they definitely can) and watching the flat screen TV as if it’s the most fascinating thing he's ever seen. Harry doubts that's really true - he's pretty sure Zayn has seen much more fascinating things in his life acting human than a TV.

While he's trying hard not to get too dizzy from the weird camera angles and just the general shitty-ness of the movie, Harry leans back against the bed headboard and looks down at Zayn. He blinks a few times more than necessary, just to be sure he is seeing what he thinks he is and it’s not just some drunk hallucination, and then his jaw drops and he feels like his heart is trying to break its way through his ribs. Because he's not just looking at Zayn anymore; he's looking at Zayn plus a pair of dark grey wings behind him, spread out and beautiful and what the fuck, man? Why is this happening? Is he high? Did someone at the party slip him something? (No, probably not – wouldn’t he have noticed something off before now?)

Zayn doesn't seem to notice what's happening, or that Harry is contemplating a total mental breakdown over this. His wings are weird - Harry can tell that he's not seeing the real thing. It's like they're translucent and he thinks he might not even be able to feel them if he reaches out to touch them. But still - they're wings, and he’s not just catching a quick glimpse of them like he was last time. These are the real deal – sort of. And it's fucking freaking Harry out how ... How gorgeous he thinks they are and the whole situation is getting weirder and weirder until finally, Zayn looks up and catches him staring.

His relaxed, chill demeanor is gone in an instant and Harry feels bad. Zayn sits up straight and his wings are gone in a flash and he's watching Harry with a nervous, anxious expression that Harry has never seen an Angel wear before. Zayn is usually cocky and obnoxious and so sure of himself but now? He's the opposite. All because Harry saw his wings?

"I-I didn't mean it," Zayn manages to say, stuttering over his words and putting a few more feet of space between the two of them. "I'm sorry I -"

He stops talking, shutting his mouth and biting his lip and watching Harry as if he's afraid he'll hurt him. Harry can barely move, let alone stand up and injure the guy so that's totally out of the question. Not that Harry would ever really hurt him anyway.

"Zayn, I... Why are you apologizing?" Is all Harry can manage and he feels so dumb and stupid and incompetent because really, he can't think of anything better to say?

"D-don't claim me. I didn't mean to- I was just-"

"Claim you? You think I'm going to claim you?"

Zayn blinks. "Don't you want to? I... My wings...I showed you them."

"Why would that make me want to claim you?" Harry says, forcing a shaky laugh and shaking his head. "Mate. No. I'd never..."

Zayn doesn't seem to believe him, but at least he relaxes enough to make him look like he's not expecting a surprise attack at any second. "It's usually how it happens. It's like... Showing your wings to a human is kind of thought of as inviting them to claim you. I thought maybe..."

He trails off and suddenly Harry gets it. Being claimed is probably Zayn’s number one fear. "I don't wanna claim you, Zayn. I just... I thought your wings were nice looking," Harry blushes and he hides his face in his hands and finally, Zayn laughs.

"Duh. They're mine. Of course they're nice looking."

The comfortable silence from before comes back and Zayn settles back into the movie, not quite as relaxed as before but still much more so than a few minutes ago, and Harry starts wondering where the hell Louis even went and then he finds himself asking, "Would I be able to like...touch them? Your wings?"

Zayn laughs again and it's his usual, light hearted obnoxious laugh and Harry knows he's getting back to his normal self. "Is your name Liam?"

"No..."

"Then no."

"Oh."

\- - -

Louis doesn't get back until three in the morning, just as the movie ends. He literally crash lands into the middle of the room, right into the pizza box and Zayn openly laughs at him before picking himself up off the floor and leaving the room. Harry wonders what he's going to do, considering its definitely not sleep but he keeps quiet. Zayn probably doesn't want to talk to him all that much after the wing incident.

"I apologize," Louis says when he's steady on his feet again and has pushed the box to the other side of the room. The TV, which had been playing the end credits, shuts off as he walks by it to get closer to the bed Harry is sitting on. "I was kept much longer than I anticipated. I hope Zayn wasn't too..."

He's not sure how to describe Zayn, so he lets the sentence hang unfinished and Harry wants to applaud him once again. This is turning out to be a great night for Louis. "It's okay," he says instead, "Zayn was fine."

"You can sleep in my bed." He must see the hesitation in Harry's eyes because he quickly adds, "I promise I won't watch you or stop nightmares. I'll leave and go meditate with John."

He doesn't have any other choice, so Harry just nods in agreement. Louis hesitates, looks like he wants to say something more, but then he thinks better of it and disappears, leaving Harry completely alone for the first time tonight. He won't say it out loud but when he finally gets into the bed, which is cold and clearly never slept in, he doesn't feel nearly as safe as he did when Louis was still in the room.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve had this written for a while but my phone won’t let me use cellular data so I had to wait. Does anyone know how to fix that? Please help!!!
> 
> Anyways enjoy sweet Louis

The next week goes by smoothly. Well, for the most part. Harry gets back a few A's on some tests he took the week before. He and Louis get their History project handed in on time on Tuesday and now they don't have to worry about it. The only negative part of the week? Niall is acting totally off. And Harry isn't dumb - he knows why.

"I'm just confused," Niall tells him before lunch on Wednesday. "You were always the one telling me you'd never get involved with Angels and here you are, hanging out with three of them and going to their house and...I'm worried about you Harry. Are you sure what you're doing is a good idea?"

Harry shrugs and pushes his backpack into his locker. "Mate. It's not like they're dangerous," he says carefully, knowing no matter what he says, Niall probably won't like it. "They're nice and they mean well and all they really want is to be accepted. By us. I've changed my mind. I want to be involved with them."

"But Harry," Niall continues, grabbing Harry's upper arm to prevent him from walking away, "What if something happens? You could claim them... They can be dangerous-"

"Alright, whatever. I'll be careful," Harry rolls his eyes, shoving his best friend’s hands off him. "I'm eating lunch with Louis. You can come if you want to. Or if you don’t feel ‘comfortable’ being around them, don’t. Whatever. I’ll talk to you later.”

Niall doesn’t seem impressed by Harry’s answer – he rolls his eyes and walks away with a scowl on his face, heading for his own locker and Harry knows he should probably feel bad about pissing him off. But he doesn’t – Niall needs to get a grip and accept the fact that Louis is Harry’s friend now.

Louis shows up a minute later, opening his own locker with practiced ease. He’s gotten much better at the lock thing. “Why is Niall angry?” he asks, sounding more concerned than he needs to. “Is it because of me?”

Only now does Harry notice the wetness to Louis’s eyes. “Are…are you crying?”

The Angel blinks repeatedly, reaching up and rubbing at his left eye and he looks so confused that Harry kind of just wants to hug him. But no – that would be a bad idea.

“I don’t know,” Louis finally says, shrugging his shoulders just the slightest bit. His eyes are dry again, but he still looks upset. “Is Niall upset with you because of me?” he asks again, his tone of voice telling Harry that he’s not going to stop asking until he gets an answer.

So Harry sighs and slams his locker shut, clicking the lock back into place. “Yeah. I guess so. But it’s not your fault – the guy’s just being a total dick. He’ll come around-”

“If you’re having an argument because of me, maybe you should stop talking to me so much,” Louis suggests, “I don’t want you to fight with your friends. That would make you unhappy.”

Harry blinks. “Do you even hear what you’re saying right now?” And Harry already knows the answer to that – no. He leans back against the row of lockers and lets out a deep, overdramatic sigh. “Louis, think of this from a human perspective-”

“I can try.”

“You and Niall are both my friends. Yes, Niall doesn’t like that you’re my friend. He’s a little bit of an asshole right now but he’ll come out of it eventually I think. Anyway, he doesn’t like it. He’s the one with the problem. You’re telling me to stop talking to you so Niall will talk to me and I’ll be happy. But if I stop talking to you, then wouldn’t you be unhappy?”

There’s the slightest head tilt, confusion painted across his features and he clearly doesn’t get it. “Of course I enjoy having you as a friend but I’d prefer you to be happy than-”

“Okay well listen. You deserve to be happy too. So, tell me that me not talking to you would make you upset. Come on. Do it.”

“Harry-”

“You say you want to learn so let’s go.”

Louis hesitates, looking uncomfortable at the idea of telling Harry anything. He bites his lower lip and rocks back on his heels a little bit, just another sign of the mannerisms that Louis has been picking up lately. “I want you to be happy,” he finally says, but before Harry can tell him that’s not what he wants to hear, he continues, “But if you stopped being my friend in favor of being Niall’s, I’d be a little bit upset. But I want you to be happy. Because you make me happy.”

He looks confused by that last statement, as if he’s not sure why it’s applicable. Harry just shrugs it off. “Good enough. Let’s go.”

And Louis cheers up in an instant and falls into step beside Harry as they walk to lunch together. They pass by Josh, who’s at his locker and Niall is with him. They’re talking about something, but it must not be about Harry or Louis because once Josh gets them in his line of sight, he’s waving to Harry enthusiastically and it’s been obvious that he doesn’t even remember the fight he and Harry had at the party last Friday. Harry has to fight back the urge to break his nose.

\- - -  
"Louis almost cried in the hallway today."

Zayn looks up, one eyebrow raised as if to say 'okay, and?' Harry sighs and glances around the parking lot. Louis just left them, claiming to have forgotten his math textbook and had to go back to his locker for it. Harry and Zayn are waiting outside, Harry struggling to figure out just how to explain this.

"I just...is that normal?"

The Angel snorts in amusement, "When you suddenly start having all these weird emotions, you tend to be a bit unstable, huh?"

"So...Angels don't have emotions?" Harry asks, feeling confused. That doesn't make any sense. He's pretty sure they do.

"Of course we have emotions, you idiot," Zayn tells him, rolling his eyes. He pulls a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and pulls one out. "They're just not nearly as powerful as human emotions. We feel happy, sad, and so on but it's like, stunted compared to what you would feel."

"But...the tears?"

"We've been cohabitating with you humans for nearly two months now," Zayn explains, "And we're starting to adapt, in a way. Louis's emotions are only going to get stronger and stronger the more he's around you. Usually this kind of thing doesn't happen for a while longer - according to others at least - but no Angel that I know of has ever spent as much time around a human as Louis does around you."

It all makes so much more sense now, Harry realizes, blushing at Zayn's offhand comment about how much time they spend together. Louis's tears and his confusion over the whole situation? He gets it now. Louis literally had no idea what he was feeling. Harry nods, showing Zayn that he understands what he's been saying, and watches as the Angel lights his cigarette just by blinking at it.

"I think it would be accurate," Zayn continues, shoving the pack of cigarettes back into his pocket, "To compare Louis's emotional reactions to those of a hormonal pregnant woman... I never did quite understand the whole ‘only women get pregnant' thing..." He trails off, looking lost in his thoughts and that's when Louis finally decides to join them again, with his math textbook tucked under his arm.

"Why are you thinking about men getting pregnant?" He asks Zayn, giving him a weirded out expression and it's the first time Harry has ever seen him react negatively to anything. And, more surprising, Harry doesn't even think twice about the whole 'read each other’s mind' thing.

"Harry wants to get you pregnant," Zayn says simply, starting the walk back home and Louis looks over at Harry with expressed confusion.

"I don't," Harry tells him, and Louis laughs, "Zayn's being his usual -"

"Asshole self?" Louis finishes, eyes lighting up.

Harry grins and nudges him in the ribs, "Yeah... Basically."

The whole way home, Zayn stays quiet. He smokes three cigarettes and doesn't make any offhand insulting comments and Harry knows he's probably worried about Liam. He was out from school all day and Harry knows that means he was fighting in their stupid civil war. As rebellious as Zayn might act, Harry's pretty positive he loves Liam.

"I have to go," Zayn says suddenly as they're crossing one of the busier streets near Harry's house. He gives Louis a pointed look and then he just disappears right there in the middle of the crosswalk and Harry is going to have to try and remember to tell him not to do that in public anymore.

"He was needed," is all Louis says in explanation and Harry just takes it. Whatever. Need to know basis, he guesses.

The closer they get to Harry's house, the closer Louis seems to move to him, their hands brushing every few minutes. Louis looks confused and Harry realizes this is one of those 'emotions' things and he should probably give the Angel some advice.

"You okay?" he asks, slightly nudging him with his shoulder as they walk. "You look confused. Or angry. Maybe both."

"No, not angry," Louis says, and he sounds certain about that. "I am confused. I...I don't know what I am."

"Zayn told me your emotions would be getting stronger the more you're around me," Harry tells him quietly, "Explain it to me and I'll help you understand?"

"I feel weird. Like, excited but I don't know about what. My stomach feels weird."

"Weird...how?"

"I...I can't explain it," Louis huffs, crossing his arms in frustration. "I don't know what words to use."

His inability to decide on a word is slightly amusing to Harry, if only for the fact that Louis is an Angel – he has more knowledge than anyone that Harry knows and he can’t figure out a simple thing like explaining an emotion. But, Harry's pretty sure he knows exactly how Louis is feeling - he's probably feeling the same way. "Butterflies?"

Louis widens his eyes, "Yes," he says instantly, "Butterflies. Is that normal? They aren't really there, are they? I don't understand-"

"Calm down," Harry stops him before he can get top carries away, "It's okay. It's fine. It kind of means you're excited and nervous at the same time. You know?"

"Oh... Yes. I get it now," Louis beams at him and uncrossed his arms and as they keep on walking, Harry takes the chance and tangles their fingers together when they brush again.

Louis looks down, then looks back up and meets Harry's eyes and says, "The butterflies just got a lot worse."

His blinding smile is what tells Harry he did the right thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think of this chappie. I’ve had a rough week and need the encouragement!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie but I completely forgot about this. I only remembered because I got an email about kudos. Funny because the entire fic is already written.

October goes by without Harry really taking any notice. He’s sent in all of his finished college applications without a second thought, not really worrying about them too much. He knows he has a high chance of getting in to at least one of the schools so that’s all that really matters to him. As long as he ends up in London or California, he’ll be happy.

Halloween takes Harry by surprise. He gets to school that morning and is confronted with black and white streamers and girls wearing what they think passes as a ‘cat costume’ and guys with stupid batman and superman capes and teachers yelling at them to put them away. Harry finds Louis at their lockers, looking confused as always and Harry sort of wishes he had warned him about this.

“It’s Halloween,” he tells him when they’re right beside each other. He smiles at the Angel and while it might not look like anything other than a smile to anyone passing by, it definitely means a little more than that between these two. “People dress up. Get free candy. It’s fun, I guess, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

“And are you?” Louis asks, looking particularly confused as a girl in the grade below them walks past them with a pair of fluffy white wings on her back. “I still don’t understand what the point is.”

“I’m not really,” Harry tells him, and it’s kind of a lie because in the past, he’s totally been into it. He and Niall would go to all the Halloween parties together and it was fun, but now? Well now Niall’s not even speaking to him so that’s not going to happen. Besides, Harry is pretty sure Louis would not fit in very well at a Halloween party. “We can just hang out and watch scary movies and eat whatever candy we can find. Sound good?”

Louis still looks a little confused over the girl with the fake Angel wings but he nods and goes back to grabbing his books for the day. Harry sighs and deals with his own books, hoping today won’t be too confusing for Louis to handle. Human customs, Harry has come to realize, are extremely difficult to explain to someone. Harry thought it wouldn’t be too hard, considering Angels are pretty smart and have infinite more knowledge than anyone but no. They still can’t grasp the concept of surfing despite how many times Harry has explained it. And the whole ‘stronger emotions’ thing? Yeah, that’s pretty hard to deal with too. But it’s a learning experience, Harry figures, and he likes Louis. He likes Louis more than he’d like to admit to anyone else.

\- - -

“I just don’t understand why people give out candy if someone knocks on their door,” Louis says during lunch. He’s eating a bagel, which is completely out of the ordinary and a huge step in the human direction. When Harry first started eating lunch with Louis and Zayn and Liam, they ate fruit salad every single day. It drove Harry nuts. If they don’t need to eat (and don’t even gain weight if they do), then why bother with fruit salad? Sure, it’s nice once in a while but every day? No thanks. One month later and finally, they’re branching out a bit and Harry is proud to say that he approves of today’s choice of bagels.

“I don’t know,” Harry shrugs, “I never questioned it. Free candy is free candy.”

Zayn perks up at that. “Free candy? And all I have to do is knock on someone’s door?”

“Well…you kind of need to have a costume in order to do that. Or else you just look like some weirdo going up and knocking on people’s doors and you’ll just get a door slammed in your face.”

“Oh,” He slumps in his seat and plays with his water bottle. He’s been acting strange lately. Stranger than usual at least. Louis claims it’s because he’s been fighting a lot and he’s been thinking about the war too much but Harry thinks that’s not it. Of course, he could be wrong. He’s far from an expert on Angels. But he likes to think that he knows these Angels well enough to know when one is acting off.

"Besides, normal people our age don't go trick-or-treating. They go to Halloween parties. With alcohol and girls and...yeah."

He expected Zayn to perk up at the mention of a party, but surprisingly he doesn't even seem to care at all, continuing to poke at his untouched bagel. Just another sign that something's wrong. Even Liam looks over at him with concern and yeah. Something's going on.

"I liked your suggestion of watching movies," Louis says, smiling and ignoring the weirdness going on with Zayn. "And candy. I've never had candy. Is it good?"

"Depends what kind of candy you're eating."

"There are different kinds...?"

Harry can't help but laugh as he nods and tries to explain the different kinds of chocolate. Louis's innocence will never get old to him. He knows that it's practically inevitable, as long as he sticks near Harry, but Harry wishes that he'll never lose it.

\- - -

“Mate if you don’t like it, don’t waste it. Hand it over.”

Louis scrunches up his nose and holds the sour worm out in front of him. “I don’t know how I feel about it, Zayn.”

“Whatever. I’m bored of this. I’m going to bother Liam. Have fun doing…whatever it is you two do when you’re alone.”

Zayn gives them a suggestive look but Harry’s the only one who catches it and he rolls his eyes in response as he leaves the room. Louis is too busy trying to figure out if he likes the sour gummy worms or not, and besides – he probably wouldn’t have caught on to what Zayn meant anyway. Yet another reason Harry really does not want Louis to lose that innocence.

The past month has been an interesting one, he thinks to himself as he watches Louis sort through the candy on the table. It’s consisted of more hand-holding with an Angel than Harry ever expected in his life, as well as endless explanations of feelings and emotions and to be honest, it’s a bit tiring. But Harry thinks it’s worth it. He and Louis have been getting closer and closer as the days pass and that only brings good things. So far, at least. His eyes focus on the wings spread out behind Louis, sleek black and shiny and fucking gorgeous, and Harry has to remind himself twice to not touch them. That would be rude. He’s come to learn that wings are sensitive (after a slight mishap where he somehow accidently pulled one of Zayn’s feathers out and yeah that was not a nice day at all). As long as he stays far away from that small section underneath that’s closest to their backs, he’s fine. Look, don’t touch. That’s a great rule to live by, he thinks.

Louis definitely has the nicest wings, but that might just be Harry being biased because he likes Louis more or something. They’re just…prettier. And Harry won’t admit that out loud (pretty? Really?) but he will think it. John’s are nice, he guesses. They’re white, which is exactly what he would have guessed if he had to. He’s never seen Liam’s, and he’s pretty sure he never will. While Liam might have warmed up to him and actually talks to him now, he definitely doesn’t quite trust him enough to relax that much around him. Harry’s not that bothered by it. He’s just grateful that Louis trusts him enough. That’s all he really wants.

“I think I like this one best,” Louis finally decides, leaning into Harry’s side slightly and holding out the candy wrapper. “The Twizzlers.”

Harry shakes his head in disgust, “You have so much to learn. Twizzlers are like, the lowest form of candy. Wait until you try this-”

He’s in the process of handing him a chocolate bar when there’s a knock on the door and Louis sits upright, his wings disappearing and the calm disposition is instantly gone – until he suddenly smiles and sighs and looks back at Harry and says, “It’s just Landon. You can finally meet him!”

Harry doesn’t answer – probably wouldn’t even have an answer if given the chance to think of one – and he watches as Louis gets up from the couch and flits over to the front door, practically bouncing on his toes as he opens it up and grins at the person standing on the other side.

“Harry is here,” He says quickly, as if it’s something that the person has been waiting to hear. “He’s here so I can introduce you two like-”

“Okay, cool,” the person says, and they step inside and Harry is pretty sure that this guy can’t be the Landon that they all talk to so highly about. The Angel Landon. Because this guy has tattoos and he’s wearing tight gray jeans and a black sweater that’s form-fitting and he looks so…so human that Harry thinks he can’t possibly be an Angel. There’s no way.

His disbelief must show pretty well (or it could be that whole ‘good at reading emotions’ thing) because Landon laughs when he sees Harry and he shrugs his shoulders. “I’m really good at fitting in.” Harry blushes and starts mumbling apologies but Landon stops him. “It’s okay, man. Sometimes even my brothers forget I’m an Angel.”

Harry sees the beginning of a confused ‘No I don’t’ forming on Louis’s lips and thankfully Landon stops him before he can even start. “It’s been a while since I dropped in. Figured I’d see how things are going. Where’s Zayn?”

Harry’s quick to catch on to the fact that Landon’s not just here to visit. He’s checking in on Zayn – that much is obvious from the glance he and Louis share.

“He’s upstairs with Liam. In their room. I can go get him if-”

“Nah, it’s okay,” Landon says, shrugging his shoulders. Then he looks over at Harry and says, “I was actually wondering if I could talk to you, Harry. If that’s okay?”

Harry swallows. “Me?”

“Yeah. Bad time?”

“No…it’s fine. I’m just confused.”

“You sound like me,” Louis grins, and that’s enough to make Harry laugh and shrug off the weird feeling. “Don’t be nervous; Landon just wants to get to know you.”

And Harry knows he’s being honest, probably having read Landon’s mind or heard his thoughts or however the hell that works for them, and Harry relaxes and nods in agreement. “Sure.”

“Thanks. Kitchen?” Landon nods towards the kitchen doorway and heads for it, Harry following along behind him like a lost puppy and he turns and looks at Louis before he walks inside. Louis just grins at him and waves and then he disappears, causing Harry to scowl at the spot he was standing. He needs to stop the disappearing act.

“So,” Landon says when he closes the kitchen door behind them. It’s empty, meaning John has probably disappeared to wherever Louis went. Harry doesn’t really like being alone with an Angel he doesn’t know. That says a lot, he realizes. He’s comfortable around Angels, as long as he knows them? Yeah, that’s great. “I finally get to meet the human that is making my brothers act slightly more normal – well. Normal to humans, at least. They’re going nuts in heaven – they can’t stand the way Louis has been acting lately. They think it’s Zayn’s fault. I haven’t told them about you.”

Harry stiffens. Is he kidding? “I…um. Thanks? I don’t mean to cause issues, I just-”

“Nah, man. It’s fine. I fully support your friendship with Louis. Or…you know. ‘Friendship’.” He puts air quotes around the word and Harry squirms under his gaze. “Anyway. I guess that’s why I really wanted to talk to you. To warn you about Louis.”

“Warn?”

“I think Zayn already told you – just about the only useful thing he’s done these past few weeks – about Louis’s emotions and how they’re getting more and more noticeable for him. He has no idea how he feels half the time – all he does know is that you’re the one making him feel that way.”

Landon leans up against the counter, arms crossed and he’s smirking and Harry is just confused – what is he even talking about? “I’m going to be honest – I have no idea what you’re trying to warn me about.”

Landon gives him that look – that look he tends to get a lot, especially from Zayn. The look that says ‘you’re dumber than I thought’ and he sighs. “Louis has a crush on you. You know… ‘Falling for you’? Is that how you people describe it? I don’t know. But he likes you. He’s just not sure what that means yet.”

“I’m trying to explain things to him,” Harry starts to protest, but Landon just rolls his eyes and Harry decides to just keep his mouth shut.

“You’re getting confused – Trust me, I like your relationship with Louis. From everything I’ve learned about you, you’re good for him. He trusts you. I’m just worried about what could happen if one of you forgets how dangerous things can be and you accidentally claim him. Don’t go against his trust like that. You know what he’s like – it would ruin him.”

It’s kind of like a slap in the face, really. Because isn’t that something that Harry is constantly reassuring that he won’t do? It is, and he’s pretty offended that Landon apparently thinks otherwise. “I would never do that to Louis,” he says quietly, unable to bring his voice any higher. “That’s…I would never forgive myself if I did that-”

“I’m not saying you want to. I’m not even saying that you will. I’m saying be careful because if you’re not careful, it could happen. You know as well as I do how many humans accidentally claim Angels. And they’re not even friends with them, or nearly as close to them as you are. Just be careful.”

“You guys are always going on about claiming and how bad it is and how you don’t want it. Why is it even possible to claim an Angel if it’s so bad? Why can I even do that to Louis?”

“It’s not bad,” Landon corrects him, “I claimed John.”

“What?”

“And then John claimed me. But that’s the difference – Angels can’t claim a human.”

Harry stays silent, because he doesn’t want to say anything stupid or ask a dumb question. He’s finally getting something explained to him – finally it’s not just him doing the teaching.

“It’s not mutual. I claimed John but then he claimed me and we’re both loyal to each other – we’re both connected to each other. It’s mutual. But if you claim Louis, it’s just him being loyal to you and having no other choice and you doing whatever you want. Get it?”

“No.”

Landon sighs. “Free will, Harry. We weren’t given that. Not like humans were. We were created to follow God’s orders and be his messengers and do what he says. And we still do that – mostly. The whole ‘occupying earth’ thing is pushing the boundaries but still. Humans don’t answer to anyone. They’ve never known to answer to anyone but themselves. That’s one of the biggest reasons that most of us think we shouldn’t be on earth. The risk of being claimed by a human is way too high. And you’ve seen how often it happens. It’s getting to the point where even those who want to be on earth are second guessing it. I have a feeling our war is going to be over soon, only because our side is going to deem the cause not worth it.”

“So…What happens to an Angel once the claiming is overruled? Is it bad?”

“Go back to heaven. Their memory is wiped. It’s not good, Harry. I can’t even imagine what that must be like. Suddenly not having any memories? When until that point you’ve had hundreds of year’s worth?”

A part of Harry is angry – why would they do that? Just wipe someone’s memory? But then another part of him is slightly grateful. “So that Angel that Josh Lancaster claimed-”

“Eve? She’s in heaven. Doesn’t remember a thing. I know what you’re thinking. You think it’s a good thing she can’t remember anything he did to her. But is it really a good thing?”

“I…well. I don’t know. Are you trying to convince me to protest against this or something? What’s the point in telling me all of this if I can’t do anything about it? I can’t go up to God and be like ‘Mate can you stop this’. I would if I could, man, but I can’t. So-”

“I’m just telling you so you know. You teach my brothers all about human life, why can’t I teach you about ours? I don’t want you to get hurt either, Harry. And I know that losing Louis would hurt you.”

He’s right, of course. The simple thought of Louis being taken away from him, of his memory being wiped, scares Harry more than anything. Louis with no memories of Harry, no memories of earth, no memories of all the human things Harry taught him. Harry hates it. He hates that it happens to any Angel at all. “Well…thanks for the info. I’ll make sure I’m more careful,” he assures Landon, “No accidental claiming.”

“I’m glad you understand.”

“Wait – what about Zayn and Liam? Are they…?”

Landon shakes his head, “They didn’t claim each other. You probably already know – being claimed is one of Zayn’s biggest fears. We aren’t sure why.” He smiles sadly and shrugs his shoulders, as if he really has no answer for it. “I’m not sure if it’ll even be an issue soon enough.”

He’s referencing Zayn’s strange behavior, Harry knows. But he has no idea what that could even mean. He’s not going to bother with a guess because he’s sure he’s going to be wrong and he won’t ask for an explanation. He probably wouldn’t get one. “Thanks for telling me all that…Like I said, I’ll be more careful.”

“Don’t think I want you to create distance between you and Louis, Harry. That’s not what I meant at all. I just want you to be thinking straight when you’re around him.”

“Right… Clear head. Got it.” He backs away towards the kitchen door and he’s almost there when John pushes it open, coming into the kitchen with the mail from today and an irritated look on his face.

“Zayn just tried to make Louis watch porn,” he says angrily, slamming the mail down on the kitchen counter. “See what happens when you take Harry away and leave Louis on his own now?”

Harry blushes, while Landon just playfully rolls his eyes and says, “Well it’s nice to see you too, John.”

And suddenly, it’s as if he’s trespassing on a private moment between the two and Harry backs out of the room as quickly as he can, just in time to miss Landon kiss John and wow okay he does not need to witness two Angels making out. No thanks, he’ll pass on that one.

He makes his way back upstairs, going over everything that Landon told him and he realizes he does need to put some distance between him and Louis, despite what Landon thinks. He can’t risk anything. He doesn’t want to put Louis’s trust on the line like that. He refuses to be the reason that Louis gets sent back.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! Sorry it took so long. I’ve been extremely busy. I’m hoping to finish this in June because July is gonna be the busiest month.

November is cold. Harry spends most of the days split between studying or doing homework and teaching Angels the concept of a jacket. It's tiring, because teachers are piling on homework and making tests harder than they need to be, and because Angels don't feel the cold, so therefore protest against jackets. But normal people wear jackets so they should probably give them a shot. The only one who actually seems to be doing that is Zayn, and it’s definitely not because he wants to fit in.

Not only had Zayn been feeling the weather change, but there have been some other weird changes with him as well. He looks tired lately, which is not typical of Angels, and Harry has noticed he's been stretching his wings a lot, as if they're bothering him. Louis refuses to comment on or acknowledge these things when Harry brings them up, but Harry just figures that's because he's concerned. Or, he's just annoyed with Harry because Harry has been putting some distance between them. It could be either - Harry can't tell yet.

"Maybe I could invest in a smaller jacket," Louis says in the hallway in front of their lockers. He's wearing one of Harry's old winter jackets and Harry will admit, it's a little too heavy and puffy for him. "This one is extremely uncomfortable. I think. I'm not sure what uncomfortable feels like-"

"If you're uncomfortable, you'll know. Take the jacket off. You don't even need to be wearing it inside. I've told you that a million times."

"Right," Louis nods, pulling the jacket off and stuffing it into his locker. He glares angrily at it before slamming the locker shut. "Yes, it was definitely uncomfortable. I feel better now."

"Oh good, I'm so glad," Harry mumbles, taking a step sideways to avoid his arm brushing Louis's as he shuts his own locker. "Let's go to lunch."

It takes Harry a few steps to realize that Louis isn’t following him. He stops and turns, expecting him to be distracted by someone else in the hall that is doing something strange and he’ll want to know why they’re doing it but instead he just sees one very angry looking Angel still standing by the lockers, giving Harry the best glare he’s ever managed to give before.

“Shit,” Harry mumbles to himself, almost afraid to walk back over to him. He knows this can’t be good. He’s been waiting for the moment that Louis’s anger got the best of him. Apparently here it is, right in the middle of the senior hallway.

“Why do you keep doing that?” Louis demands when Harry gets close enough, and the people a few lockers away turn to look at them.

Harry hushes him and steps even closer, reaching out to grab his upper arm, “Hey, man, stop yelling. Volume control. We talked about that-”

Louis shoves his hands of off him dramatically and suddenly Harry is the one confused. He has no idea how to deal with this – an angry Angel throwing his first temper tantrum. “Don’t touch me now. You clearly don’t really want to,” Louis spits and folds his arms across his chest. He keeps glaring at Harry until finally, his eyes start to water and he gets this pathetic, desperate look and says, “I do-don’t like being angry.”

“Then don’t be,” Harry quickly suggests, smiling awkwardly at girl staring at them four lockers down. “Just calm down-”

“I can’t! You make me angry! And I hate that you make me angry, and I hate being angry so I just get even more angry!”

Harry sighs and looks at Louis, contemplating how exactly to go about defusing this emotional time bomb he suddenly has on his hands. "Louis, this is something we can deal with at home-"

"You always do that!"

"Do what?!"

They've created a scene now - it's impossible to ignore it. Everyone's watching as Harry tries to cool down an Angel who has no idea what he's feeling. Or, maybe he does know and he's just fed up with it. Either way, this needs to stop before teachers get involved. That's the last thing they need.

"You're always trying to distract me and tell me we can ‘deal with things later’ but all I really want to know is why you keep acting like you don't want to be near me anymore!"

"Listen to me," Harry says calmly, reaching out and carefully resting his hands on Louis's shoulders. When he doesn't get pushed away, he swallows and continues, ignoring the looks they're still getting. "I'm looking out for you. I don't... I don't want you to get hurt. Your emotions are unstable; you don't know what you want. I could get you hurt and that's the last thing I ever want. You understand?"

"No."

"Well, try. Because the faster you understand why I'm doing this-"

"You used to always tell me I should do what I want - that humans do what they want - and that I should be selfish for once and do what makes me happy. You make me happy. I've never felt like this ever and I know you're the one making me feel it. It's not just my emotions being 'unstable'. So stop telling me it is! I'm not stupid, Harry!"

Harry wants to tell him he knows he's not stupid, that he doesn't think that at all, but before he can get another word in Louis is gone and Harry is standing in the middle of the hallway looking pathetic and miserable.

"You are an idiot."

Harry jumps at the voice that comes from beside him. He turns quickly, nearly tripping over himself in the process and finds Liam glaring at him and Zayn grinning gleefully right beside him.

"Thanks. Really. I appreciate the words of encouragement." Harry shoves his hands into his hoodie pocket and hunches his shoulders and keeps his head down as he starts walking towards the cafeteria with the two Angels. "As if I didn't get enough from Louis."

"From all the movies I've seen, you deserved it," Zayn says quickly. He's wearing tighter jeans than usual today, along with a plain white t-shirt. His outfit isn't that drastically different from Liam's or Louis's, if you ignore the Arctic Monkeys hoodie he's wearing over said t-shirt. Harry is almost positive that used to be in the back of his closet. "Louis is really fuckin’ mad."

Swearing is yet another thing they've started to pick up on. Zayn mostly, but Harry has noticed the others doing it as well. "Whatever, man. It's for his own good."

"No it's not," Liam says, "Louis thought you felt the same way about him that he feels about you. But then you started being distant and you ripped it all out from under him. His emotions might be new, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a grip on them yet. He knows how he feels. You're the one who needs to really think about it."

"You sound so intelligent," Zayn admires, leaning into Liam's side as they walk. "That is sexy."

"Get off me; people are watching," Harry hears Liam mumble, and he can't help but smile as he still takes Zayn's hand in his own.

Zayn hums, clearly pleased. "Your hands are warm."

"That's a bad sign."

"I know."

And to Harry's surprise, he really doesn't seem to care much at all.

\---

Harry makes a solid, conscious effort to pray for Louis as soon as he gets home and locks himself in his room after school. His mom questions his distress at first, but he just tells her he has an essay to write for a college application and she leaves him to it. He knows she wants to know what he's been up to lately - he's never home and he never sees her much anymore - but she'll wait for him to come to her.

Louis doesn't come no matter how many times Harry prays. He even uses his full name and still nothing. To say he's worried would be quite the understatement.

He convinces himself that Louis is just still really, really mad. That's why he doesn't show up. And Harry can accept that- he was an asshole, he knows that. But he wants to fix this. So he needs to see Louis as soon as possible.

The real worry doesn't set in until the following day at school, when Harry comes to the terrifying realization that there are absolutely no Angels present in the entire school. Not just his Angels - all Angels are missing.

So Harry goes through his entire day alone. Niall gives him a look in Math, one of those questioning looks that probably just means 'where's your Angel army?' so Harry just ignores him. He doesn't pay any attention in any classes, too distracted about what could possibly be going on that every single Angel in the entire school needs to be out. Harry's the only one concerned about it - everyone else celebrates their absence and the temporary freedom it gives them. Harry wants to hit them all. Don't they know how much trouble they could be in? How - then he realizes. No, they don't know. Because they don't care. And that's probably the main problem with human/Angel relationships.

The end of the day comes and Harry walks home alone. It's strange without Louis's constant chatter and Zayn's snide comments and Liam's occasional input. Now that Harry knows a life with them in it, life without them is just going to suck. He pushes away the horrifying thoughts - the ones he had all those months ago about never even knowing if they die fighting. Because they aren't going to die.

His mom is the first person to try and force a conversation out of him. He sits at the island in the middle of the kitchen, frowning over a bowl of cereal. "You look like someone just ran over your puppy. What is going on with you?"

"I've never had a puppy," Harry responds miserably, "You never let me have one."

"Not the point. Are you in a fight with Niall? Why haven't I seen him in so long?"

"Yes. Because he's a douche. He'll come around eventually," Harry waves his hand as if to say 'its whatever' and she just frowns even more.

"So then what has you all pathetic and mopey?"

Harry sighs and pushes the cereal away from him. "Louis is either ignoring me, fighting in a civil war, or dead. None of those things sound appealing, do they?"

His mother blinks. "Louis? That Angel that you had over for that project once or twice?"

"That's the one."

"I don't understand... Is he your friend, or something? Since when do you think it's a good idea to associate with Angels?"

"He's my friend. He means a lot to me!" Harry protests, "And I'm pretty sure he's risking his life right now so I would appreciate a little bit of sympathy, Mom."

She stands there and watches him, looking contemplative. She's probably wondering whether to ignore him or send him away for therapy. "He means a lot to you..."

"Yes."

"Right." She clears her throat and stands up straight and looks like this is the last thing she wants to say, "I'm sure Louis is okay. Don't worry so much. Angels are a lot stronger than you probably think."

She shocks him with that little bit at the end - as if she actually is admitting to know something about them. But she leaves him alone again before he can investigate. Alone. He might need to get used to that.

\- - -

"Is that history homework due tomorrow?"

Harry freezes, pen in the middle of writing a sentence about the Middle East, when he hears Louis's voice in his bedroom. He forces himself to relax and not look up from the page. "No. Due Monday. You've got time."

"I'll just take yours. I think you owe me that anyway."

Harry smiles to himself, hearing the unspoken forgiveness in Louis's voice and he lets himself look up, prepared to find him bruised and broken but at least alive.

"I'm fine," he says after Harry gives him a quick once over. "I always am."

"I...well that's good. I was... I was worried. About you. I thought-"

"Well you don't have to worry anymore. I'm fine. Still angry at you, but fine."

Harry blushes, "I know you have every right to be mad. I don't exactly regret trying to protect you, but I shouldn't have done it that way. You do mean a lot to me and I know it was dumb of me to baby you the way I did. You're more than capable of figuring out how you feel."

"I know how I feel, and I told you. I'm fighting to stay here, Harry. I'm fighting to stay here with you. So I've reasoned that out to mean that I'm fighting for you."

"It's not-"

"Shut up and let me talk for once?"

"I- right. Fine. Go."

Louis gives him a small smile, and Harry considers that a win. He sits down in the computer chair by the desk and he relaxes enough for his wings to appear behind him. And there's yet another win.

"You ended up meaning more to me than I ever thought anything on Earth would mean. I'm fighting for you Harry. You're the sole reason I have so much faith in humanity. I... I don't know much about human life still and you have a lot to teach me but the feelings I have for you are stronger than the ones I have for anyone else. John told me I'm falling in love with you. It sounds kind of scary and I think it would hurt a lot but...is it bad that I don't think I care?"

"No," Harry quickly says, "No it's not bad. I know how you feel because I feel the same way. I like you a lot. Like, I can see myself liking you the way Zayn and Liam like each other. You know?"

His eyes widen, "That's a lot."

Harry laughs, "Well there you go. Basically, I think I'm falling in love with you. And if you'll forgive me, I hope you can accept your feelings and let yourself fall in love with me. If you want. I mean-"

"Okay."

"Okay? That's it? You don't want to think about it?"

"All I do is think about it. I like the way I feel about you. If everyone says I'm falling in love, then fine. I want to fall in love.”

Louis gets up from the chair and his wings are gone in the blink of an eye and Harry finds himself upset about that. But then the Angel is coming over and sitting beside him on the bed, feet flat on the floor and spine too straight to be comfortable.

"Don't get too close," Harry warns him quietly, reaching out and taking Louis's hand, going against his warning.

He watches Louis roll his eyes and then he's taken by surprise - pulled forward as Louis wraps his arms around his neck and moves in even closer. "Tell me if I'm doing this wrong," he says, smooth fingertips ghosting across the nape of Harry's neck.

Harry swallows and takes a breath, "You're doing everything right."

And then Louis is kissing him, pressing his soft, perfect lips against Harry's rough chapped ones and it's somehow the best kiss he's ever had, despite the fact that Louis has not only never kissed anyone in his long life, but he also has no experience whatsoever on the intimacy department. Harry pushes all those thoughts away and presses his lips even harder, fingers finding their way to his hips and the beginning of something new and terrifying forming right there in his bedroom on a Thursday night.

\-- -

They don't sleep that night. Harry doesn't because he's too preoccupied by the thoughts running rampant in his brain, and Louis doesn't because he just doesn't have to. They watch "10 Things I Hate About You", because it's on and Louis has never seen it.

"I'm not going to school today," Harry decides at four in the morning. He's in his bed, under the sheets and Louis is sitting against the wall beside him, eating a bag of Sour Patch Kids. "I'll just tell my mom I don't feel well."

"Are you sick?" Louis asks, tilting his head. "If you're sick I should leave."

"I'm not really sick, doofus. I'm just telling her I am so she doesn't make me go."

"Oh. So you're lying."

"Very good, genius," Harry mumbles, yawning and turning over on his side. "You're going to get cavities if you keep eating all that sugar. Or you would, if you were human."

Louis shrugs. "They're just so good."

Harry muffles his laugh by pressing his face into his pillow. The last thing he needs is his parents overhearing and coming in to find an Angel in Harry's bed. That would not go over well at all.

"I have a question," Harry asks quietly reaching out and taking the bag out of Louis's hands. It crinkles loudly as he tosses it to the floor and Louis pouts and Harry's heart skips at that. But he ignores how adorably cute Louis is and instead says, "I want to know what's going on with Zayn."

Louis's face falls and Harry feels bad that he's making him talk about this. But he needs to know. He deserves to. Doesn't he?

"You're probably going to regret asking that once I tell you," the Angel says, moving and slipping down so he's lying on his stomach on top of the covers. "Zayn is in trouble. And we can't do anything about it."

"What kind of trouble? Is it... Is it because of-"

"He's falling. Soon enough he's going to be just as human as you are."

Falling. Human. These words don't sound right to Harry, they don't fit. He tries to picture Zayn human and no matter how hard he tries, he can't do it. It's surprising, considering Zayn was the one who acted the most human out of them all. But he was still always an Angel. And Harry can't picture him otherwise.

"What does that mean though? How does he just 'become human'? There's gotta be something-"

"Zayn rebelled one too many times for there to be any shot at saving him, I think," Louis says sadly, "Of course that doesn't mean that Liam isn't trying. You've seen him lately, you know what's happening. It's hard watching my brother fall, Harry. I don't know... I don't know how to help him. I don't think I even can."

For the second time, Harry is witnessing Louis cry and it’s the hardest thing he's ever had to watch. He pulls him closer, mindful to keep that bit of distance, and presses a kiss to the top of his head. "It'll be okay," he promises, "It'll be fine. You've got me to help you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please give kudos and comments! It keeps me motivated!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I forgot this existed until I got a kudos email. I’ve just been very busy ever since moving to LA. If it’s not a photo shoot, it’s a gig which is awesome for me but also must be annoying for all of you. Please if it takes me longer than two weeks between updates feel free to comment telling me to update already.

"How could you do that to him? He trusted you more than anyone and you broke it."

Harry is numb. He can't feel anything. He swallows hard and tries to work up the nerve to say something - anything - that would help his case. But Landon is glaring at him and Liam looks furious and Louis? Louis is crying silently and clinging to Harry's side and everything is just ten times more overwhelming than Harry can handle. And it's all his fault. One misjudgment of how much distance he had between his hands and that spot on Louis's wings.

"And the worst part is, he probably won't want to overrule it because he doesn't want to 'hurt him.' Too late for that, huh Harry?" Zayn spits, and Harry notices that he looks different. He looks a million times better than he has been lately, that's for sure.

"I didn't mean to do it," Harry protests, finally finding his voice. Louis's family is looking at him as if he's a murderer and all Harry wants to do is go drown himself in the bathtub. Because he went and did what he said - promised - he wouldn't ever do. Claim Louis.

"Doesn't matter," Landon sighs, crossing his arms. "You did and now you've got yourself that to deal with."

Harry looks down at the Angel clung to him, arms wrapped tight around Harry's waist and his face buried into the fabric of Harry's hoodie. "Louis, it's okay," he says softly, pushing his fingers through his hair and trying to be comforting. "It's fine, I’ll fix this."

It's an empty promise- either way, Harry loses him somehow. A claimed Louis has already proven to be a shell of what he once was, and if he gets his memory wiped? He won't even remember meeting Harry, let alone how close they became.

"I love you," Louis says, looking up with tear stained cheeks and glassy eyes. "D-don't let them take me back. Please, Harry. I'll do anything! Whatever you want!"

It's pathetic and sad and depressing all rolled into one and Harry has to close his eyes and fight back tears of his own. "I won't, okay? I promise I won't."

-

When Harry wakes up, it takes him thirty seconds longer than it should have to realize that he had been dreaming. His sheets are tangled around his legs and his forehead is wet with sweat and there's an Angel sitting at the edge of his bed, eating sour worms and watching the cooking channel.

"You asshole," Harry mumbles, reaching up and running his hands over his face. "You fuckin asshole, Louis."

Louis stops mid-chew, looking over at Harry with an irritated expression. "I haven't done anything."

"You've been here all night - you probably noticed I was having nightmares, you jerk. You didn't think 'wow, Harry sure looks distressed. Let me help him out there and stop the nightmare'?!"

"Last time I did that you told me I was creepy and I shouldn't do it anymore," Louis says simply, looking down at his bag of candy. He contemplates for a second, and then holds the bag out in offering. "Want one?"

Harry knocks the bag out of his hands and they scatter all over the floor. "No. We're practically dating now; I give you permission to stop my nightmares. Okay?"

Louis perks up considerably at that, looking from the floor where his sour worms were spread out all the way to the door, to Harry with a gleeful smile. "Oh good. I hate when your soul is distressed. Wait - dating?"

The blush that rushes to Harry's cheeks should be embarrassing, but he can't help himself. The thought of 'dating' and 'Louis' and 'Angel' in the same sentence really just blows his mind. "Yeah... You know. We're 'seeing each other'."

"I see you all the time."

"I mean romantically, Louis."

"Oh...oh. I get it. Like Edward and Bella in Twilight?"

Harry groans and throws himself back against his pillows. "Who let you watch that?"

"Zayn. It was great. Edward really loves Bella and-"

"Let's get this straight," Harry interrupts, sitting up and shifting closer to Louis. "We are not like Edward and Bella. We're like... We can be like any other movie couple except Edward and Bella. Okay?"

Louis shrugs. "Is it because you would be Bella because I would obviously be Edward?"

"I literally never want to hear you say their names ever again. You hear me?"

"Fine."

With one glance at his alarm clock, Harry comes to the realization that it's three in the morning. He groans and lies back down again. "I need to sleep."

"Then sleep."

He doesn't even know it, but he's being a total smart ass and Harry wants to laugh. "Now I'm awake. It's too hard going back to sleep now."

"Oh." Louis looks like he wants to say something else, so Harry nods at him and silently tells him to continue. "I was wondering if... If it would be okay if I slept next to you?"

It's a weird question, considering they've laid down beside each other countless times since their little fight last week. But Harry can tell that this time, Louis is hinting more along the lines of 'cuddling' rather than 'sleeping'.

"Well... I guess. I mean, it's a little dangerous..."

Harry's dream is all too vivid still. He never wants to feel like that again - and he knows it'll be ten times more painful in reality.

"Being close to you might not be ideal but it is what I want and you always tell me I should do what I want more often. Aren't you?" Louis has his head tilted in that stupid way that Harry has come to love and he finds himself cursing whoever fucking made that a quality that all Angels seem to have and use to their advantage. "Am I imagining that?"

"No," Harry quickly clarifies, "Definitely not. I think you should do whatever you want."

"What I want is to be close to you. Unless that would make you uncomfortable because in that case that's the opposite of what I want. I think." Louis blushes. "Human logic is complicated."

Harry takes pity on him and shifts closer to him in the bed. He avoids the Angel's wings and makes sure his hands are nowhere near them because the last thing he needs is himself accidentally claiming Louis and seriously that would just ruin any progress he's had in teaching Louis about human life. "Are you comfortable?"

Louis hums in agreement and nods against Harry's shoulder. They're pressed up against one another on the bed and Harry has one arm around Louis's waist and the other is tucked under his pillow, far from his wings. Or at least he thinks so. He can't actually see them. He's sure Louis would tell him if he was close, though.

"I'm always relatively comfortable," Louis informs him, "My level of comfort doesn't-"

"Shut up and relax for two minutes? Consider this another lesson on humans."

And Louis does shut up. He shuts his mouth and snuggles even closer into Harry's side. Harry can feel his wings shifting, moving far from Harry and Harry sighs, wondering how the hell he went from avoiding Angels like the plague to cuddling one in a matter of months.

\- - -

Thanksgiving break used to consist of Harry eating himself into a coma and hanging out with Niall and playing video games. Now, it's spent in an Angel's kitchen, teaching them how to make an apple pie. At least, teaching two of them how.

"Honestly," Harry whines, rinsing his hands at the sink, "You would think this is brain surgery. It's just an apple pie! You guys should be able to handle this."

"Well that's how I felt when trying to teach you how to carve the protection sigils into your doorframe so you're safe,," Louis says, pouting, and Harry can't help but lean in and kiss him.

"Unnecessary," John says, scrunching up his nose. "Can you just explain the whole "putting butter on the crust" thing? That seems..."

"Fattening? Unnecessary?" Harry offers, "Both, probably. But it makes it taste better. And considering none of you need to watch your weight, you shouldn't care."

Harry's cooking students stay quiet for the most part throughout the remainder of the lesson. He notices John glancing towards the stairs every few minutes, probably worrying about Zayn or something. They've been extra secretive about him lately - he hasn't even been going to school. Liam has been gone for a week. They won't tell Harry anything about that either.

"It goes in the oven for a half hour or so, maybe forty-five minutes to be safe. And then it has to cool. Then you eat it with ice cream."

Louis looks excited about the ice cream part, John just looks indifferent. "I'll be right back. You can finish this up without me right?" He asks, stepping towards the staircase.

"Yeah, sure."

Once he's gone, Louis slumps down in his seat at the table and looks at Harry with a frown. "I wish he would stop worrying for a little while."

"Well if you guys told me anything, I'd be able to give you my opinion. But considering you don't..." He trails off with a shrug and opens up the oven. It's clean and barely used and it'd probably be his mother's dream to get an oven this clean. He puts the pie on the middle shelf and closes it. "Set the timer for thirty minutes," he tells Louis.

Louis fumbles with the timer, looking torn between ignoring Harry's complaint and telling him everything. And, as always, he finally cracks and spills.

"Zayn is not doing well," he explains quietly, "Falling is painful. I mean, none of us have experienced it but... We've heard things. And now he's going through it himself. We don't really know what to do for him or how to help or how to stop it. All we do know is that he can't hear us anymore and his wings are days away from disappearing."

"Wait- he can't hear? He's deaf? How-"

"No, Harry. He can hear perfectly fine as far as normal hearing goes. I mean he can't hear Angels anymore. He can't hear us in his head."

Harry squirms, simply the thought of hearing voices in his head making him uneasy. "That happens? You hear voices?"

"Of course. It's like... It's hard to explain. But I can hear my brothers and if I really wanted to, I could hear the others. In heaven. But that would require more energy than I think is worth."

"What's going to happen once it's over?" Harry asks, sitting down at the table and taking Louis's hand in his own. "The falling part, I mean."

"He'll be human. Which I guess is kind of what he wanted...but not like this. Zayn didn't want to fall. He just wanted to experience what they told him he couldn't have. They're probably laughing about it. All the Angels who said he'd be the first of us to fall."

"It'll be okay," Harry finds himself promising again. He's been doing it so much lately that he's pretty positive that something is going to end up ‘not okay’. He just hopes it's something insignificant, and not something as big as this.

\- - -

He spends thanksgiving with his family. He doesn't really want to, but it would probably be hard trying to explain to his parents that he's sort of kind of in a relationship with this guy named Louis who happens to be an Angel and that he would rather spend the day with him. It wouldn't go over well. Especially not with his father, who he barely ever sees anyway. So he's stuck at his cousin’s house two towns over, listening to dumb family stories he's heard five times too many and eating bad pumpkin pie.

"You're unusually quiet," his mom notes halfway through dessert. "Anything going on? Still fighting with Niall?"

And yeah, the mentioning of Niall makes Harry's mood slip even lower because he does miss his best friend and he does want to reconcile with him. He just isn't quite sure how. "I guess," he tells her with a shrug, "Still waiting for him to come around."

"Maybe you should try going to him," she suggests, "It doesn't matter who was wrong or right. It matters that you want to fix things. You've been friends for too long to let something like an Angel relationship come between you."

Harry gapes at her and she grins.

"If you honestly think I didn't catch on to what your fight was about, you must think I'm stupid. Plus, if you also think I don't hear you up all night on the phone with Louis, you must think I live under a rock."

He bites his lip, resisting the urge to tell her she's still wrong - Louis is literally in Harry's bedroom almost every night – has been for the past two weeks. But he resists. Let her think what she wants.

"Maybe you need to make the first move with Niall. You never know, right? Maybe he's too nervous, thinks you're too mad at him."

She's right about that, of course. He is still mad at Niall. But it wouldn't hurt to contact him and see if he's changed his mind would it? Probably not.

"I'll do that," he nods, smiling up at her, "Thanks mom."

"You're welcome. I'm just glad you're opening up to me again. I feel like I barely know you sometimes."

She smiles sadly, as if she's already come to accept that she's losing him, and Harry makes a promise that he'll stop being so distant. For her sake.

\- - -

He meets up with Louis outside of the house for once, at an old coffee shop two blocks away that always seems to be open. The only people working are broke college students who couldn’t afford to go home for the holidays, and the only customers inside are Harry, Louis and a few girls sitting on the opposite side of the room, typing something up on their laptops. Probably a college paper, or something. Harry can’t help but think that this time next year, he’ll be down in London, maybe doing the same thing. He glances across the table at Louis, wondering if he’ll be with him, too.

“I think I like this,” Louis tells him after he takes a sip of his drink. “What is it?”

“Hot chocolate. If you didn’t like it, I’d be concerned.”

He nods and takes another sip, smiling contently. “I should bring some home for Zayn.”

Harry frowns, his heart sinking in his chest. He was hoping there wouldn’t be any new information about Zayn tonight – hoping that he and Louis could have just a few moments with no worrying. “Still bad?”

“Worse. It’s difficult, because while we know he’s going to be fine eventually, it’s hard seeing someone, who was once one hundred percent an Angel, suddenly suffering from all these…human things. His senses are weakening, he’s feeling the cold. It’s hard, Harry. And Liam has been gone for a week and we don’t know what he’s even doing so when Zayn asks for him…it’s just hard. That’s all I can say, really.”

“I’m sure Liam will come back soon,” Harry assures him, “He’s probably just looking for a way to fix everything.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Louis smiles, and it’s the first real smile Harry has seen from him in a while. “It’s supposed to snow tonight. Should we go home before it starts?”

Harry laughs, because of course Louis knows if it’s going to snow or not. He looks out the window, takes in the dark sky and the clouds overhead and he shrugs. He doesn’t know which ‘home’ Louis means – his or Harry’s. And he decides that it doesn’t even matter – home is turning out to be wherever Louis is at the moment. Harry would have been embarrassed at such a sappy thought before, but it’s true.

“I dunno,” he finally says, taking out his wallet and dropping a ten dollar bill onto the table. “Want to just take a walk with me?”

Louis gives him an instant yes and they’re out the door two minutes later, with an extra cup of hot chocolate for Zayn and heading in the opposite direction of either of their houses. Hot chocolate can be reheated, Harry explains, and Louis smiles and slips his arm around Harry’s waist as they walk, keeping warm and keeping him safe the best way he knows how.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this one edited already so I thought ‘eh. Might as well’.

"So you're asking me to stay here and look after a whiny, half-Angel while you guys go God knows where to find Liam?"

Louis nods enthusiastically, not quite catching on to Harry's irritation. John notices it and he shrugs, telling him, "It's not as if you could come with us anyway. Just make sure Zayn doesn't do anything stupid. We'll be back before you know it."

Harry knows he had no chance at winning this argument - what'd he expect? To be able to go with them? Wherever Liam is, it's definitely not somewhere Harry can go.

"Fine. I'll babysit," Harry agrees, "But I swear if he's an asshole, I'm leaving."

John sighs, "Of course he's going to be an asshole, Harry, what do you expect? Imagine what he's going through?"

And that makes Harry feel bad, being reminded of the fact that Zayn is probably in more pain than he ever thought possible. "You're right, fine. Just don't take too long, alright?"

Louis grins and wraps his arms around Harry's waist, "I'll miss you," he says softly, and Harry blushes. Louis is stronger than he looks (he suspects it's just another 'Angel' thing) and Harry has to struggle to separate from him. "I'll miss you too," he tells him as kisses the top of his head. "Be safe, okay? Don't give me a reason to worry about you."

"I'm an Angel, Harry. I should be the one worrying about you."

\- - -

Apparently, Angels don't know very much about falling. Only a few have fallen and nobody thought it would be a good idea to keep tabs and find out what happened. So Zayn is basically going through a crash course, and one of the worst steps is building up the immune system he never had. And Harry is fascinated.

"Did it...you know."

"Are you asking me if it hurt?" Zayn laughs, stopping short and breaking out into a coughing fit. He looks positively infuriated by it, clearly over the whole "shitty immune system" thing. When he finally stops, he looks even more exhausted than when he started, and he says, "Of course it fucking hurt; you try having a pair of wings all but ripped from your skin."

Harry cringes. "Right. Sorry."

Zayn is standing by his bed, wearing only a pair of boxers and a pair of socks, claiming that it's 'too hot' for anything else. It's only thirty degrees out. It's clear his fever is worse than Harry was warned about.

Harry's eyes land on Zayn's back as he bends down to dig through his laundry basket. There are multiple thin, raised red scars all over. Harry doesn't know how it happened, but if he didn't believe that it hurt before, then he definitely believes it now.

"I'm sorry this is happening," Harry finds himself saying, "You know. The whole 'falling' thing. You don't deserve it-"

"Of course I deserve it," Zayn snorts, pulling one of Harry's old sweatshirts from the basket. "I was literally the worst behaved Angel. I mean, sure, not as bad as Lucifer obviously. Because otherwise I'd be damned to hell. But still. Definitely deserved it."

"Wait - Lucifer as in... The devil?"

"You're smarter than I tend to think you are Harry. You surprise me every day."

Harry thinks about defending himself, but then Zayn starts coughing again and Harry thinks that maybe it’s time he got his mom involved in this. She's a nurse. She'll know what to do. She can prescribe something for him to take, maybe.

"Harry? Are these yours?"

Harry looks up, finding Zayn still looking through the basket of clothes. Harry brought them over earlier that morning, having a feeling that Zayn might want some warmer, more comfortable clothing options. He's currently holding up an old pair of skinny jeans that used to fit Harry freshman year.

"Yeah, man. They don't fit me anymore and I noticed you've been wearing that other pair I lent you - the ones that are too big for you. Try those on. They'll probably fit perfectly."

"Thanks," Zayn says softly, folding the jeans over in his hands and looking down. "I've been meaning to thank you. You know, for lending me clothes and stuff. I'm an asshole - I know I am - but for some reason you still look out for me."

"Aw, Zayn, are we having a moment?" Harry grins, "You don't have to say anything. I figure you look out for me too."

"Of course - I mean, I'm not of much use now but before..."

"Oh please. You may not have all those Angel abilities but I think you can hold your own. If it ever came to it."

"I'm really glad Louis found you, and not some other inconsiderate human."

\- - -

Harry's mom is getting ready for work when he calls her. She has the night shift at the hospital and she doesn't really sound like she has much time for Harry when she answers the phone, but Harry tries anyway, trying to sound as desperate and concerned as he can.

"Harry...I don't know a thing about Angels," she tells him once he's finished with his desperate plea for help. She sighs and he can hear her shuffling papers. "Nothing I have can help-"

"That's okay because he isn't really an Angel," Harry tells her quickly, glancing across the room at Zayn, who's fast asleep and shivering underneath the comforter on his bed. "He's really sick, mom. I don't know what else to do."

"What do you mean 'not really an Angel'? Harry, what have you gotten yourself into?"

She's worried - and he knows it's just because he's been so secretive and distant lately. She has no idea what he's been up to and it's probably driving her crazy. "Mom please, I can explain it all to you when you get here. I just really need your help."

\- - -

She looks uncomfortable being in the house, but Harry is just thankful she came. He pulls her further into the living room where Zayn is still sleeping. "He's got a fever and he's been switching between shivering and sweating and he says his throat hurts and-"

"Harry. I need to-"

"I'll explain it all after you help him. Okay?"

She sighs deeply, looking inconvenienced and annoyed, but she still follows Harry closer to the couch and watches him as he tries to wake Zayn up. Harry reaches out, rests one hand on Zayn's back and he hears her inhale sharply and mutter his name and he turns back around only to find her staring in shock.

"What did I do?" He questions, and the. He quickly registers that she still thinks Zayn has wings. "Oh - no, Mom, I can't claim him-"

"And why not?"

"He's not... He's not an Angel anymore. Not completely, anyway. That's why... That's why I need your help."

She watches him for a moment, clearly skeptical about the entire situation. She's probably regretting coming over in the first place. But then she looks down at Zayn and she must realize how sick he really is, because she finally nods and says, "Okay. Fine. Wake him up and I'll see what I can do to help."

Harry knows he owes her one - or two - and he grins at her in thanks, and all she can do is smile and roll her eyes in response.

\---

"I just can't believe how oblivious I've been to everything you have been up to."

Harry squirms in his seat at the kitchen table in Louis's kitchen. "It's not like I was lying or anything..." He trails off, shrugging his shoulders.

His mother just shakes her head, eyes roaming the kitchen. She takes in the coffee pot on the counter, which looks as though it’s never been used. There are letter magnets on the fridge (purchased by Harry) that spell out a short shopping list. It looks like a normal kitchen, but she knows it's definitely not used like one.

"These Angels... It's obvious to me that you care about them a lot," she observes, "Especially Louis. How can you feel so connected to people who can be so dangerous, Harry? Did you even stop to think about how unsafe you're being?"

"That's all I used to think about," Harry shrugs. "Then I got to know them. They aren't dangerous. They just want to learn and be treated normally. All we do is alienate them and treat them like one wrong move and they could kill us. Yes, they're powerful and yes, if they really wanted to they probably could kill me but I know them. I trust them. A lot."

His mother still looks skeptical, and he doesn't blame her. He doesn't expect her to just automatically understand all of this just because he's explained it. She's going to need time if he ever expects her to.

"I don't doubt that they're good, Harry. I just ... I worry about you and how you might get involved in that civil war we all know nothing about."

"They would never let anything happen where my life would be threatened." Nobody has ever told him that to his face, but he just knows. "I'm safe with them, Mom. Really. You just gotta trust me on that."

"I think I do. Weirdly enough. You’ve been happier lately – the few times I’ve seen you for longer than five minutes, at least.

“I am happy,” Harry tells her, and it’s the truth. He’s happier than he’s been in a long time. There’s just something about Louis and his innocence and his selflessness that just really makes Harry’s days better. He makes Harry better. And sure, having Niall still mad at him is a little depressing and sure, he wants his best friend back. But not until Niall can accept Louis and the fact that he’s in Harry’s life now.

His mom smiles fondly, clearly accepting his response. “That’s all I ever really wanted for my boy. Maybe it’s not the way I expected, but happiness is happiness I guess,” she pauses, giving him that look that tells him he’s definitely not in the clear yet. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t still want details. How exactly did you end up babysitting a used-to-be Angel? And how did that even happen to him?”

“That’s kind of…a long story-”

“Harry if you think for one second that you’re going to get out of telling me this, your sister must have dropped you on the head one too many times. I called out of work for this – start talking.”

It’s easier than he expected it to be – telling her everything from start to finish. She probably wasn’t expecting him to tell her so much information but he figures it’s now or never, to get it all over with. He leaves out the parts about Louis being in his room at late hours and even sleeping over because he figures that she would definitely not take well. But everything else, from first meeting Louis to their first kiss to now, is all free game and he finds himself smiling the whole way through it.

\- - -

Chilling out with Louis is one of Harry’s newest favorite things to do. And when he and John get back from wherever the hell they went to, sans Liam, all Harry really wants to do is climb into his bed and watch a movie with his boyfriend (how weird does that sound?). And thankfully, Louis is down or it. He appears in Harry’s bedroom at half past eleven, after Harry has showered and changed into his sweatpants and old basketball t-shirt and put on a movie Louis has yet to see. He’s finally come to accept the fact that movies are purely for entertainment and not for learning. It’s about time, because Harry wasn’t too sure how many more times he could sit through him saying things like ‘It’s highly illogical to think that Marlin would be able to swim all the way to Sydney’.

It all goes fine for the first half hour, until Louis gets uncharacteristically restless and his wings start getting in the way.

“Louis!” Harry hisses, trying to keep his voice as low as possible and push the other boy away from him. “Your fucking feathers are getting in my face! Quit it!”

Louis doesn’t look fazed by it. “Sorry. I was stretching them,” he says, eyes trained to the TV screen. “I don’t understand this movie. Why would an Angel know how to play baseball?”

“It’s a movie,” Harry grumbles for what feels like the millionth time in the past few months and he shifts so he’s laying on his side, back pressed up against Louis’s chest. “Stop stretching and sit still like you normally do, you freak.”

Louis has taken quickly to the concept of ‘cuddling’ and while he’s usually pretty good at it, tonight just seems to be an off night for him. His arm wraps around Harry’s waist just fine but his wings definitely do not settle down and Harry freezes as they come to wrap around him like a blanket. “Louis. Stop.”

“I’m sorry,” he says softly, quickly loosening his hold on Harry’s waist and his wings are gone in an instant, folding up behind him and disappearing from Harry’s view.

Harry bites his lip, the guilt overwhelming him. “I didn’t mean to hide them. I just meant if you put them any closer bad things will happen.”

“I don’t know why but it’s like I can’t help it,” Louis tells him, “I feel weird. And don’t ask me to explain it, because I can’t.”

Harry closes his mouth, knowing better than to force Louis to try to explain it. He knows better than anyone that sometimes feelings just can’t be explained. So he rolls over and faces Louis, ready to try and walk him through another emotional self discovery, but that’s quickly put on hold when he realizes exactly why Louis feels ‘weird’.

"Louis," he says, trying hard to keep his smile from spreading across his face, "Louis how long have you had a boner for?"

Louis looks confused by Harry's question and it only leads to Harry smiling even wider and pressing his face into Louis's shoulder. He fights back the laugh he knows is coming and tries to calm himself down. Because this is amusing. "You're feeling weird because you're totally turned on. By me, I'm guessing, because there's definitely nobody hot in this movie."

"I don't understand-"

Harry stops him, hands cupping his face and he smiles gently. "It happens. It's another one of those inconvenient human emotions that you've gotta deal with."

"We'll it's uncomfortable," Louis mumbles, cheeks flushing red as he looks down between them. "What am I supposed to do..?"

Harry smirks and trails his hand down Louis's chest, "When this happens, just let me handle it alright? Unless we're out in public. Then you should definitely try and control it. Get it?"

"Oh... This is one of those sexual things Zayn was trying to tell me the other day, isn't it?"

"Please don't talk about Zayn," Harry requests, fingers fumbling with the buckle of Louis's belt. He would be lying if he said he wasn't totally waiting for the day Louis would finally start showing that he's interested in Harry sexually. He knew it was only a matter of time but now that it's actually here, he can't move fast enough. His fingers make quick work of unbuckling and pulling the belt out of Louis's belt loops, tossing it over the side of his bed. Louis's breathing has quickened, and Harry smiles because this is all so new to Louis and it’s kind of really adorable. And then a thought comes to him. "Wait. Are you going to get in trouble for this?"

"I-In trouble?" Louis gasps, fingers tightening around Harry's shoulder. "Why would I-"

"Are Angels supposed to be like...abstinent? Or something?"

"Well Liam and Zayn do it all the time-"

"Don't need to know that. However, I feel like since I'm not an Angel it might-"

"I love you," Louis interrupts, pressing his lips to Harry's quickly. "I think that's all that will matter. If it matters at all."

"Right...okay." Now that the question of Louis and his morality are out of the way, Harry goes back to the button on his jeans, mouth pressing soft kisses along his neck. "In that case, I'm about to make you feel better than you thought possible. Are you ready?"

"I th-thought you said nothing feels better than winning Mario Kart?"

Harry rolls his eyes and manages to start pulling Louis's jeans over his hips. He pushes him over onto his back and nudges at his hips, and Louis gets the hint and lifts them, allowing Harry to pull them further down his legs.

It's the first time Harry has ever seen Louis in anything less than pants and a t-shirt, and while he could kind of figure he had a nice body just by using his imagination, now he's finally seeing the real thing. Louis is neither overly muscular nor is he as skinny as he looks. His hip bones are more obvious than Harry expected and the way his t-shirt is riding up displays them well. He's perfect already and he's not even naked yet. Harry has a feeling he's in way over his head with this Angel.

"You tell me I'm not allowed to stare at you but now you're the one doing it to me and I have to agree that it's making me uncomfortable," Louis says, breaking the silence and tugging Harry back from his thoughts.

"Sorry baby," he mumbles, leaning in and kissing him.

Louis's soft lips are always such a contrast to Harry's rough, chapped ones but somehow it doesn't make a difference. He kisses him hard and then softens it, hands coming up to slide underneath his shirt. The soft cotton rides up as Harry moves his hands higher, tracing his ribs with gentle touches. Louis has become a fast expert on making out, and that's almost enough to distract Harry from getting any further. But the quiet whine that Louis lets out when Harry's thumb flicks over his nipple is enough to bring him back to the task at hand : giving the Angel his first sexual experience.

Harry pulls away and Louis pouts (he is getting way too good at that) as he watches him sit back on his knees. "Don't look at me like that," Harry teases, "Or else I'll stop and we can just go to bed."

He doesn't give Louis time to answer, reaching up and pulling at the hem of his shirt. He tugs it up over Louis's head and tosses it to the floor to join the jeans and the belt and when he looks back at him, he grins. The Angel's hair is sticking up in every direction and he's biting his lip and watching Harry's every move and he just looks so sexy that Harry almost can't take it.

"God you're gorgeous," he tells him, reaching out and smoothing his hair back down. Louis leans into his touch and Harry smiles fondly. “My parents are probably still downstairs watching TV so…we gotta keep quiet. Alright?”

“I know how to be quiet,” Louis states with a frown but Harry just pushes him back down so he’s lying on the bed again. “You are becoming extremely hands-on.”

Harry lies down beside him, back pressed against the wall and he lets his fingers trace a line above the waistband of the boxers he’s wearing. Harry kind of wants to know where Angels get all their clothes from – Louis only has about four different outfits and Harry just really wants to know where they got them in the first place. But he figures now’s not quite the time to do that, and he presses a kiss to Louis’s chin and says, “Just tell me if you want me to stop.”

“Okay…”

Harry has no idea what he was expecting Louis to look like underneath his boxers and he really doesn’t even know why he thought it might be anything different. He’s never seen a naked Angel before – and he’s pretty sure no other human in his town has either – so he guesses he was just preparing himself just in case. But no, Louis is normal. And Harry finds himself breathing a quiet sigh of relief. “Relax,” he whispers when he notices how tense Louis’s body is, “Relax and let me show you, okay?”

For the second time, Louis nods and says okay and he lets his head fall back against the pillow as Harry presses up against him, lips trailing along his shoulder and his hand tracing patterns on his stomach, moving lower and lower. When Harry finally gets to where his touch his needed most, he hears Louis’s breath hitch and he can’t help but smile a little bit wider. He wraps his fingers around Louis’s dick and jerks him slowly, steadily, and feeling his ego inflate as he notes that he’s the one making Louis pant and arch his back and lose all composure the Angel had just minutes prior.

“H-Harry,” Louis whimpers, his right hand coming up and twisting into the pillowcase. “I don’t-”

Harry shushes him, kissing him and keeping him quiet. The last thing they need is his mom – or worse, his dad – hearing them and coming upstairs to investigate. Harry doesn’t even know how he’d go about explaining this. Their kiss is lazy and sloppy and Harry’s hand is sticky with pre-cum and everything about this is sneaky and rushed but Harry thinks it’s pretty perfect. He jerks Louis off a little bit faster, tightens his grip, and he hears Louis’s breath pick up even more, back arching a little more obviously. Harry knows Louis isn’t going to last very long at all, considering this is the first time he’s ever done anything, and only a few minutes later, he’s moaning into Harry’s mouth and there’s cum all over Harry’s fist and Louis’s stomach.

Louis’s heart is pounding and Harry can feel it. He presses his lips against his jaw and quietly tells him to remember that he has to keep breathing. Louis weakly elbows him in the ribs and Harry laughs, leaning over to grab the t-shirt he’d thrown there earlier. He wipes his hand off on it, and then brings it up to wipe off Louis’s stomach and he tosses it over towards the laundry basket on the other side of the room. He doesn’t wait to see if it makes it in before lying back down.

“That was nice,” Louis says softly, cheeks bright red as he pulls his boxers back up over his hips. “Does it always feel like that?”

“Sometimes it’s even better,” Harry mumbles into his shoulder. He keeps one arm underneath his pillow and the other draped over Louis’s waist. By now, he knows that Louis will warn him if he’s getting too close to his wings or he’ll just move Harry himself. Harry trusts Louis to make sure everything is fine.

“Aren’t I supposed to reciprocate somehow? Zayn told me-”

“Pretty sure my most said phrase to you is ‘ignore Zayn’. So please, ignore Zayn and just go to sleep. Or at least pretend to.”

Louis keeps quiet for a full twenty minutes, which is surprising considering he’s never gone that long without talking. Harry is on the edge of sleep, so close to actually passing out, when Louis shifts and pulls him even closer, curling into his side. He hears him mutter I love you and Harry has never felt safer in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s late and I should get some sleep but my boyfriend deploys soon and I don’t wanna stop messaging him. Maybe I’ll edit another chapter until he falls asleep...


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quite possibly the cutest chapter so far. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Liam comes back on Sunday. Harry is sitting in Louis's kitchen, watching a football game and trying not to laugh at Zayn's look of concentration. Harry has been trying to explain sports to him recently, but the only one that he's been able to catch on to is baseball. And even that he's a bit shaky on, considering there aren’t any games on TV for him to watch. So needless to say, Zayn is one hundred percent focused on the small flat screen up on the wall, trying to observe the game and teach himself, and totally misses when Liam appears in the doorway.

"What is he watching?" Liam asks, and just from his voice, Harry can tell that Liam did not exactly have an easy time wherever the hell he went.

"Football.” Harry explains, "Want to join?" He figures the last thing Liam will want to talk about is where he was or what he found out, especially not until after he talks to Zayn about it first.

"Sounds fascinating," Liam says, and Harry can tell that it doesn't really. "But I need to steal Zayn away from you for a bit."

Harry shrugs and motions towards Zayn as if to say 'go right ahead' and Liam walks forward, placing his hand on the shoulder of the boy who is still totally unaware of his presence. Zayn jumps in surprise, leaning away from the touch and looking up at Liam with wide eyes.

"I-I didn't hear you," he says quickly, relaxing the second he registers who it is. His cheeks are red and he's biting his lip, clearly embarrassed about his reaction. "I'm not used to that..."

Liam shakes his head, "Don't apologize, it's fine. Can you come upstairs with me?"

Zayn hops off the bar stool he was sitting on and stands beside the Angel, looking so much smaller than he used to. He shoves his hands into the deep pockets of his sweatshirt and follows Liam towards the staircase. Harry watches as Liam reaches out and puts his hand on Zayn’s back, but Zayn puts space between them and follows Liam up the stairs while looking down at his feet. He hasn’t said it out loud (and really, he probably never will) but Harry can tell he’s not very fond of being near Liam while he’s human and Liam is not.

Another hour passes with Harry sitting alone in the kitchen watching the football match. He’s not entirely sure where John is – he had mentioned something about Heaven and dealing with Landon about something – but Louis should be back soon. At least, he should be. He’d told Harry earlier that he’d just gone to pray (for Liam, but that went unmentioned) and said he wouldn’t be more than an hour or so.

Harry is a second away from turning the game off and heading home when he hears the stupid feint flutter of wings behind him, signaling one of his Angels has decided to join him again. He only knows it's Louis by the way he touches one hand to his back, as if to reassure him it's just him.

"How long does it take to say a Hail Mary or two?" Harry grumbles under his breath as Louis pulls a bar stool up next to him and sits down as close as possible.

Louis rolls his eyes, which is something Harry totally regrets teaching him. "You are too impatient. I was barely gone for longer than-"

"Two hours," Harry informs him. "But while you were gone, Liam came home and he and Zayn are either having an intense conversation or sex that is equally as intense because I'm almost positive I heard the bed hit the wall once or twice-"

"I already know that Liam came home; I knew the second he decided he was coming back and knew exactly what he wanted to talk to Zayn about.. All of us knew except for you and Zayn," Louis tells him and Harry frowns, feeling a bit slighted. Louis notices, and quickly says, "I'll tell you the details once he and Zayn are finished discussing them."

"Fine, leave me out of it," and Harry's not really pissed off. He understands, sort of. "So now that you're back, what are we doing today? I'm not sitting inside any longer or I'll go crazy."

"I had an in depth conversation with Landon while I was gone-"

"You said you'd be praying."

"- and he told me that you need to take me out on a date."

Harry blinks. "Okay..."

"So that is what I want to do today. A date."

\- - -

It’s not exactly easy coming up with a date that will be good enough for Louis. It’s not that Louis is picky – or even knows how to be – but still. He’s an Angel. Where do you take one of those on a date? Harry’s pretty sure there’s no advice column for dating an Angel. Maybe he should write his own. And then he thinks better of that – he has enough to deal with, doesn’t he?

He’s narrowed it down to two options – a fancy dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in town and maybe seeing a movie, or going to Dave and Busters and playing games and maybe eating dinner there. They’re two different extremes and Harry isn’t sure which would make more sense. He wishes he could ask John or Zayn or Liam about it but he wants this to be a surprise and those Angels share everything. Harry wouldn’t be surprised if they even know about the sexual things he and Louis have done together. Not there are a lot. But still. They probably know. Harry just tries to ignore that little detail because if he didn’t, he’d probably have trouble looking John in the eyes.

His decision gets even more difficult to make when he gets a new text message. He’s sitting in Louis’s room, watching the Angel alphabetize the small movie collection he’s got going on, and at first, Harry can’t even recognize the beeping sound his phone makes. It’s been pretty silent lately – nobody really texts him anymore. Louis doesn’t have a phone and Harry’s always with him anyway so. It’s been quiet. And he can’t help but feel just a tiny bit pathetic when he finally does register what the sound is and pulls the phone out of his back pocket. He’s lucky he even remembered to take it today.

“Oh,” is all Harry finds himself able to say once he opens and reads the new message in his inbox. It’s from Niall and it’s totally the last thing he was ever expecting the message to say.

“You do not sound very pleased,” Louis observes from his spot on the floor and Harry looks over at him, taking in his small frame leaning up against the wall and the small stack of DVD cases in his hands. His wings are visible and he himself looks so pleased with the way his alphabetizing is going that Harry can only manage a laugh at first.

“Well, not nearly as pleased as you look. How long can it possibly take you to organize seven DVDs?”

“I’ve changed my mind,” Louis informs him, “I’m putting them in the order of which I enjoy more.”

“Well that’ll take years.”

“More likely, it will take less than a half hour.”

Harry rolls his eyes at Louis’s constant need to correct him on accuracy and turns back to his cell phone. “I just got a text from Niall. He wants to meet up with me. He claims he’s been acting like an asshole so…”

Louis’s face brightens with a smile and he says, “Well that’s wonderful. However you still don’t seem very happy.”

“Well he wants to meet up tonight and I’m supposed to be taking you out on a date.”

Louis shrugs, reshuffling the cases in his hands. “Why don’t you ask Niall to come with us on our date?”

Harry laughs, shaking his head, “That’s not quite how a date works.”

“From what I understand,” Louis says carefully, looking a bit frustrated with Harry’s reaction, “Is that for something to qualify as a ‘date’, we just have to spend time together doing something nice. That’s how Landon explained it, at least. I want you and Niall to be friends again. Why can’t he come too?”

He makes it sound completely rational, Harry decides. And he looks so adorable sitting there and trying to understand the concept of a date and being happy that Niall wants to be Harry’s friend again and just…He doesn’t have the heart to tell him ‘no, Niall can’t come’. “Fine, I’ll tell Niall to come with us. I don’t know if he’ll want to, but it’s worth a shot.”

“I have a feeling he will,” Louis says, and Harry can’t help but believe him.

\- - -

Dave and Buster’s is loud, and Louis doesn’t quite understand it.

“So…you just play games? And then…win prizes?”

“Well you have to win the games you play, which will get you tickets and then the tickets get you prizes.”

“Right…”

He totally doesn’t get it, but Harry can’t explain it any other way. He’ll just take the lead and play the games and hope Louis is smart enough to figure it out and catch on. Hopefully by the time Niall meets up with them, Louis will have already gotten the hang of it and it’ll be one less thing for Harry to worry about Niall finding weird.

“Look, you just throw the ball and hope it lands in one of the holes that have a high number marked on it,” Harry finds himself explaining, standing behind Louis and putting the ball in his hand and facing him towards the Skeeball game. “But don’t throw it too hard,” he adds in, knowing Louis has the strength to seriously do some damage. “Just, you know. Gently.”

He chose to take Louis here simply because he figured it’d be better to meet Niall here instead of a nice restaurant. Not to mention a lot less awkward. He just hopes that Niall was serious when he said he wanted to make amends. Harry’s not sure what he’ll do if his best friend shows up and still acts like an asshole.

“Did I win?” Louis asks after he throws the ball and it lands in the hole with the lowest number.

Harry just laughs and shakes his head. Louis understands such complex things like physics and calculus with such ease, and simple things like Skeeball and video games give him such trouble. “You still have five more tries, baby. Keep going and we’ll see how you do.”

Louis turns around, the second ball in his hands and he tilts his head as he says, “That’s the second time you’ve called me that. I’m not an infant. Why-”

“It’s a term of endearment, Louis,” Harry tells him, blushing red and feeling the heat creep up the back of his neck, “If you don’t want me to call you that then I won’t.”

Louis seems to contemplate this for a moment, thinking it over and over and comparing it to all the things he’s learned about being in a relationship and finally he shrugs and turns back to the game. “It’s okay. I think I like it.”

Well. Now that that’s settled, Harry relaxes again and stands beside his boyfriend, resisting the urge to hold his hand or touch him somehow. There are a lot of families around – it would probably not end up very well for them. It sucks, but it’s the way it is. And Harry’s pretty much accepted that.

They get almost a full hour alone together, sneaking kisses when Harry is sure nobody’s paying them enough attention to care and teaching Louis the basics of the simplest games. They win a lot of tickets, but apparently Louis has his sights set on something much more highly priced, ticket wise.

“Do you even know what that is?” Harry laughs, leaning on the prize counter, watching Louis eye the aquarium on the top shelf. “You probably don’t even know what you’d put in there.”

“Yes, I do,” Louis protests, “An animal. I think.”

“Right, but what kind?”

“A marine animal.”

“A fish. Multiple fish.”

“I want it,” Louis insists, grinning. “Please?”

And because Harry is apparently not one to deny Louis of anything, he agrees. And thankfully, that’s when Niall shows up. Harry’s going to need all the help he can get in winning enough tickets.

The first thing Niall does when he shows up is shake Louis's hand, which is a surprise but at least the Angel knew how to react appropriately. Harry isn't sure where he learned that from because he knows nobody has ever greeted him with a handshake before. Come to think of it, nobody really ever greets Louis at all. Or any of the other Angels. Just goes to show how afraid of them people really are.

The second thing Niall does is apologize to Harry's face, which is nice, in Harry's opinion.

"You're my best friend - I was being such an idiot. If you say they aren't dangerous then I should believe you. Besides... Louis looks like he couldn't hurt a fly."

Harry resists the urge to inform him that actually, Louis could probably take everyone within ten feet of them right now with ease. "Yeah, he's totally harmless."

"Sorry it took me this long to apologize and just ditched you the way I did."

And Niall truly looks sorry, so Harry just takes it and let's it go, turning his attention back to Louis and the Skeeball game he's at once again. "It’s alright. I’ve been…keeping busy, I guess. Louis is a handful. Not in a bad way. In a good way, really. He’s just…”

Niall laughs, wrapping his arm around Harry’s shoulders, “Dude. I’ve only been here for five minutes and I already can tell you are way in over your head with this guy. When did you ask him out? And don’t ask me how I know because anyone with eyes at school know that you two have something going on.”

Harry blushes. He totally didn’t think they did anything at school that would give off the impression that they’re dating. “Is it that obvious?”

“It’s not like, completely obvious. But you can tell there’s something more there. You’re the only guy in the whole school who actually associates himself with an Angel. Multiple Angels. That doesn’t go completely ignored.”

And Harry decides that he doesn’t care all that much. People can think what they want about him and Louis and Zayn. “Well it’s only been about a month.”

“You like him a lot.”

“Yeah…” Harry grins, watching Louis pout as he only receives two tickets from the game. “You could say that.”

Niall gets along well with Louis, which shouldn’t be surprising. Louis will get along with anyone if they give him the time of day and Niall is trying to get back on Harry’s good side. Niall still seems a little bit apprehensive about getting too close to Louis but Harry wouldn’t expect anything else. Just because he wants to get to know Louis doesn’t mean all those fears of accidentally claiming him are going to just disappear.

“I think Niall is intimidated by me,” Louis says when Niall has disappeared to the bathrooms. He bites his lip and leans into Harry’s side, counting up the tickets in his hands. “He’s afraid he’s going to claim me.”

“He’ll get over it if he sticks around,” Harry assures him, “Can’t expect him to get used to you just because he spends an hour or two with you. Remember how much I avoided you at first?”

“Yes. I’ll admit, I did get the feeling you did not enjoy my presence. But then you came over my house to work on our project and I didn’t think that anymore.”

Harry blushes, embarrassed at the fact that yeah, he was kind of an asshole in the beginning but hey. He isn’t perfect. “Whatever. I like being around you now, don’t I?”

“Yes and that makes me happy. I don’t think I won enough tickets.”

He hands the tickets over to Harry and just by looking at them Harry knows he doesn’t have enough. But he starts to count them anyway, just to give the impression that maybe they have a little bit of hope, and halfway through he feels Louis edge even closer to him. He thinks nothing of it at first, until his arm wraps around his waist and there is literally no distance between them. Harry stops counting, looks down and finds Louis looking across the room, glaring.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asks, trying to pry Louis’s arms off him, but he knows by now that that’s a useless task. “Babe, people are looking at us.”

“That girl has been watching you. She likes you.”

“Excuse me?” Harry looks up, following Louis’s gaze and his eyes land on a girl standing by the prizes, eyeing Harry up and down and okay yeah. She definitely looks at least slightly interested. “You’d think she’d stop, considering you’re all but glued to me right now. Don’t tell me you’re actually jealous, Louis.”

“I don’t like her,” Louis tells him, “She wants you the way I have you. I can tell. I don’t like it.”

“I’m sure she’ll get the picture once she sees what a possessive boyfriend I’ve got attached to me.”

He goes back to counting, getting closer to the end of the tickets, before Louis finally releases him. Harry sighs, shaking his head and concentrating on the counting until Louis just takes the tickets right from his hands and shoves them into his jacket pocket.

“Okay I guess we just won’t know how many we have-”

Harry’s words are cut off by Louis grabbing his jacket and pulling him forward, pressing their lips together harshly and Harry thinks it’s official – his Angel is insane.

He doesn’t stop Louis though, of course. Who would stop making out with their boyfriend when their boyfriend is being so forceful and hot and sexy and – well. All Harry can do is put his hands on Louis’s hips and hope that nobody is paying them too much attention. Last thing they need is to get kicked out for ‘indecent behavior’.

The kiss doesn’t last longer than a few seconds, and when Louis pulls away, he doesn’t move his arms from around Harry’s neck. “Do you think she ‘gets the picture’, as you put it?” he asks.

Harry swallows hard and glances over Louis’s shoulder. The girl is gone. “You scared her off. I think I’m safe now that you’ve pretty much told the entire place that I’m taken.”

Louis tilts his head, “Isn’t that normally how humans claim one another when feeling threatened?”

And Harry laughs – a real laugh that has him bent over, hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath and when Niall comes back over, giving him a questioning look, all he can do is wrap an arm around Louis and lead him towards the prizes. Harry can’t be positive, but he thinks that as far as Angels go, he found the best one.

\- - -

They get back late that night, having stopped to pick up pizza for dinner. Harry figures it’s about time he introduced the Angels to one of his top three foods. When they walk in the front door, they find Zayn watching American Idol in the living room and John and Liam are ignoring the TV altogether, reading what looks like a Bible.

“You’re missing it – they’re kicking off two people tonight!” Liam exclaims, nearly kicking Zayn in the face as he turns in his seat to look at the two who just walked in. His eyes widen when he sees what Louis has in his hands. “Dude. Where did you get that?”

Louis holds out the nearly four feet long stuffed snake in his hands and smiles. “Apparently if you win games, they give you things for free. We tried to win the aquarium but we didn’t win enough games. I’ve named the snake Boaz.”

Harry puts the pizza box down on the living room table and flips the cover open. “How clever,” he teases, and when Louis just looks confused he adds, “Boaz… Like a Boa Constrictor?”

“No…Like Boaz, the husband of Ruth.”

“Oh of course. My mistake. I should have known,” Harry rolls his eyes, far too used to being shown up with Bible verses and parables and whatever other crap Louis spits out.

Zayn takes the paper plate from Harry eagerly, being the only one aside from Harry interested in the food he brought home. The others just look at the pizza, blink and shrug and carry on with what they were doing before they came home. Harry tries not to be insulted – they don’t know just how good pizza is yet.

“So am I ever going to know where Liam was and what’s going on?” Harry asks, figuring it’s now or never and he really thinks he totally deserves to know. “Or am I going to be kept in the dark because I’m not an Angel?”

“Just because you’re not an Angel doesn’t mean you’re not an important part of our family, Harry,” John tells him and Harry blushes at that, looking down. He wasn’t quite expecting that as a response. “Of course you’re going to know.”

Louis grins at him and Zayn rolls his eyes and Liam doesn’t do much other than tilt his head but that’s not all that unusual and Harry just kind of feels really overwhelmingly happy for the first time in a while.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y’all really thought it was gonna be all fluff and sap? Ha. Ha. Ha.

"So... Basically, you're falling on purpose..."

Between Zayn's sniffling and John's rapid page turning, Harry is having trouble focusing on what Liam just told him. He's pretty sure he got it right (especially taking Zayn's reaction into account) but it still sounds crazy.

"Basically. It was the only option I was given. They told me to consider it... I really think I'm going to tell them yes."

Falling voluntarily. Even Harry can tell that's not exactly something an Angel should even think about, let alone consider. But Liam is right, really. What other option does he have? Zayn will barely let him get near him, terrified of touching him. It's not exactly ideal for either of them.

"I think if it's what you want, you should do it," Harry says, avoiding Zayn's eyes. "If you think it's the best thing to do then I support it."

"The only one who doesn't support it is Zayn."

Zayn glares at his boyfriend but it doesn't come off as very threatening, considering how puffy his eyes are and the fact that he's been crying for the better part of the hour. "I don't support it, asshole, because I'm not quite a fan of you throwing everything away just for me. I'm not-"

"If you say you're not worth it, I swear I'm going to punch you and we all know you can't take a punch now that you're human."

"What will happen when you do it? Same as what happened to Zayn?" Harry interrupts their silent fight, glancing over at Louis who just smiles. "Losing your wings, building an immune system... All that?"

"Yeah. No different."

"And who exactly...gave you this option?"

"Well I met with a few Angels- Archangels, actually. They're superior to me, to all of us, and technically they're the ones we're fighting against. They weren't pleased to see me, and that's probably why I got such a shitty deal. The fact that Zayn fell pleases them more than anything. Just gives them another reason why we shouldn't be on Earth."

The whole idea of Archangels is new to Harry - he didn't even think there were levels of Angels and some who were superior to others. The fact that Liam was visiting with ones who want him back in heaven (or, alternatively, dead) makes Harry reach out and put his hand on Louis's knee. He feels like every day, there's another reason for him to be worried about their well being.

"Don't worry, Harry," John says when he sees his concern, "the Archangels just want things to go back to the way they were. They're not going to kill us for no reason. We would have to give them one. But right now we're okay. Until we have to fight again."

"You said that you're not faring too well in the war, though. You said you think it's going to end soon," Harry points out, and John shrugs.

"I can't know for sure. But you don't need to worry about it. Just relax. Don't upset yourself over nothing."

Harry wants to tell him that he can't not worry - not when his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s family could be in serious danger. Sure, they may not have had to go fight in a while (Landon claims peace treaties are under discussion but Harry's not sure he can believe that). Harry's going to worry as much as he can handle. He doesn't want to lose Louis, not when he's become as important as he has.

\- - -

Harry meets Adam on his way home from school on a Tuesday in the first week of December. He's alone for the first time in a while - Zayn is home sick with bronchitis and Louis and John are both off discussing something somewhere - and Adam catches him off-guard, popping up beside him out of nowhere and greeting him with an enthusiastic, "Hello, Harry."

"Who the fuck are you?" Harry asks once he can breathe properly again, hand clenched in his shirt, right over his pounding heart. "You can't just pop up like that!"

"My apologies," he says, "My name's Adam. I'm an Angel of God. I believe you know my brothers quite well?"

He puts emphasis on those last two words and Harry swallows, taking in his appearance. He's tall, but not as tall as Harry, with dark black hair and perfect features. He's wearing a plain white shirt and black pants. Harry blinks. "You're an Angel?"

"Archangel, actually. But details aren't important. What is important is that you, Harry, are seriously causing me more problems than I think you're worth."

A minute too late, Harry realizes that Adam is definitely not fighting on Louis's side.

He bites his lip and takes a few steps back, wondering just how far he would get before this super Angel could strike him down. "I don't really... You know, I have a lot of homework and some college stuff to do so if you don't mind I'd like-"

Harry stops speaking when Adam just smirks and shakes his head. "Oh Harry. It's amusing how you think you're not involved in this. My brothers might tell you that you shouldn't be worrying, but trust me. I think you need to. Especially as far as your boyfriend is concerned."

Harry must flinch at that, because Adam laughs again. "You've been on my radar from the moment you were assigned to be Louis’s partner. At first, I didn't think you'd cause much trouble. But then you actually became interested in my brother - in the whole family. And that's when I knew I'd have to deal with you eventually. And hey, what do you know. Here I am to deal with you."

"Where's Louis?" Is the first thing Harry can even think to say. He knows better now than to try and run and all he can think of is calling for Louis. He quickly prays for him - calls for him in his head - and he hopes that wherever the hell he is, he's not too busy.

"You're wasting your time, Harry. Louis is busy being a part of the negotiations. He's not going to come flitting over to you just yet. Besides, I'm not here to hurt you, so you shouldn't even be worrying. We're going to have a conversation, Harry. And then I'll be on my way again. Okay?"

Harry hesitates in answering, waiting an extra few second to see if he's telling the truth. But Louis doesn't come and Harry finds himself with no better option. So he shrugs and nods and Adam gives him a hard pat on the back, sending Harry stumbling, knees hitting the cement.

-

It's not hard to come to the conclusion that he's sitting in Louis's kitchen. He can't remember how he got here, can't remember anything past Adam touching him and him falling to the sidewalk, but he's smart enough and educated about Angels enough by now to know that those two things go hand in hand. His mind goes to Zayn, who’s upstairs in his room sleeping off his illness, and he has half a mind to call out for him. But then he realizes, Zayn wouldn’t be of much help anyway.

"Sorry, I had to do that; couldn't waste much more time. Do you happen to know where they keep coffee?"

Adam's voice comes from over by the stove and Harry struggles to focus, head feeling heavier than usual. He hates this feeling. Reminds him of having a bad head cold, or something. "Cabinet above the fridge," he tells him, rubbing at his head. "How did I get here?"

"I brought you here," Adam tells him, pulling a mug out of the cabinet. "I'm guessing Louis has never done that to you before. Sorry - should have warned you."

Before Harry can respond, he's being handed a hot mug of coffee (made way more quickly than any human would be able to) and Adam is sliding into the seat across from him.

"So. I want to make you an offer. And I want you to promise to really think about it before you say no. Okay?"

"I probably won't but if it makes you feel any better..." Harry thinks he's mumbling but he doesn't care too much because Adam seems to be able to understand him just fine.

"I'm sure you're aware of the civil war going on. And that Louis and John are just two of the Angels fighting against me."

Harry hums in agreement, taking a hesitant sip of the coffee. It's not too hot and it turns out to be the best homemade coffee Harry has ever had. Angles must have some sort of coffee making skills.

"So you are aware that one wrong move, they could both be dead in an instant."

"I'm aware, yeah. Wanna get to the point already?"

He probably shouldn't be so rude to someone who could have him killed with the snap of his fingers but he kind of can't help it.

"It would be stupid of me to ask for more respect from you, I guess. You're not even one of us and apparently you're more dedicated to their cause than I expected." Adam frowns, glancing quickly between Harry and the clock. "Anyway, since you're aware of the danger they're in, you should be aware of the fact that their side is losing. Any day now, I'm going to finish this. Any Angel who is still fighting against me is going to be in danger and I don't think you're in any position to lose Louis- considering the relationship you have developed with him."  
He laughs at Harry's blush. "I'm sure the last thing you want is for Louis to get hurt."

"I don't," Harry says quickly, "But I don't exactly believe what you're saying."

"If you let me, Harry, I can promise that Louis and Liam and John and Landon will be safe. And so will Zayn. As long as you agree to let Louis go."

"Let... Wait, what?"

"Let him go. You're going to be the reason that Louis falls, do you realize that? He would give it all up for you. Your interest in my brothers and your desire to teach them all they want to know is causing me to lose valuable Angels. I already lost Zayn - although he was a lost cause straight from the beginning - and now Liam is considering falling just to be with him. And when I asked him why he would do that do you know what he told me?"

"I ... No."

"He told me that you told him there's nothing wrong with sacrificing things for the person you love. Said you said it's 'part of being human'"

And okay, Harry remembers that conversation but he totally didn't think it would be the one to come back and bite him. "I did say that but-"

"So you can see why I think you're a serious problem, Harry. I can't afford you messing up the Angels that I have to take back and figure out what to do with.”

Harry bites his lip and sits back in his chair, contemplating his options here. Sure, he could tell Adam to fuck himself and to go back to wherever the hell he came from and risk Louis getting hurt. Or, he could just accept this. Accept whatever Adam is trying to offer him and deal with whatever happens next. “What exactly do you want me to do?”

\- - -

“Harry! Harry are you okay?” Louis’s hands are on him the second his eyes land on Harry sitting in his living room. He grips his knees, kneels down on the floor in front of Harry and once he realizes that yes, Harry is in the exact same condition as when Louis last saw him, he sighs. “What did Adam say to you?”

Harry nods, “He had some... interesting things to say. He’s an asshole. No offense.”

Louis laughs, getting up from the floor, slipping into the empty space beside Harry. Harry can hear the others in the kitchen, can hear Zayn walking down the steps from his bedroom and feels Louis wrap his arms around his waist. Everything seems so normal and Harry knows that it’s not.

“He basically gave me an ultimatum, Louis,” Harry says quietly, linking their fingers together. Adam has only been gone five minutes tops and he still feels a little shaken. “Either I stick around with you and keep influencing you and teaching you about human life and you die when he ends the war, or I agree to stay away from you and he’d wipe your memories of me and you…you wouldn’t die. You’d be okay.”

Louis’s fingers tighten around Harry’s. “Please tell me you didn’t listen to him, Harry. He can’t…Just because he’s an Archangel doesn’t mean he has pull like that. Sure, he’s powerful but we’re not going to give up fighting-”

“I told him I’d think about it,” Harry says softly, “I just…I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

“We’ll tell Landon – ask him what he thinks. But Harry you can’t seriously think about…”

And Harry knows how bad it sounds – agreeing to let Adam wipe their memories so they won’t remember Harry. It’s against what he believes and yet he does find himself considering it, because he would never be able to live with himself if Louis died. He would rather Louis be safe.

Louis stands up, pulls Harry up with him and starts leading him towards the steps. “Come upstairs with me,” he says, walking backwards. “We can talk up there.”

‘Talking’ really just means Harry staring at the ceiling and Louis tracing patterns on his skin. His fingertips just barely touch his skin and Harry finds himself almost falling asleep, forgetting everything that happened today, until Louis turns over onto his side and presses his lips to Harry’s cheek. “We’ll figure it out,” he promises, and Harry believes him.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny bit of smut and a whole lot of fluff

"I don't think this is a very good idea..."

Zayn trails off, his skinny arms folded across his chest and his nerves becoming more than obvious as he stares across the lunchroom. It's a Wednesday afternoon, the last day of classes before Christmas break, and Harry is trying hard to get these Angels some more friends.

After the visit from Adam, Harry thought that was it for him. He thought he would have to let Louis go. But Landon talked him out of it, told him Adam was bluffing and that yes, he has a lot of power but not that much. So Harry has decided to trust his judgment and hope for the best. And while he's doing that, he'll carry on trying to give them the best human experience possible. He hopes God doesn't smite him or something for this. That's the last thing he needs, really.

"I already talked to Caleb" Harry assures Zayn, patting him on the back. "He said that he's so desperate for new members, he would be stupid to turn anybody away."

"What if I suck?"

Harry, now completely over Zayn's athletic insecurities, sighs and puts both hands on the fallen Angel’s shoulders and starts walking him forward, towards the baseball diamond with Louis following close behind.

Caleb and Garrett, two of the star members of the school's baseball team, are playing catch in the outfield, tossing the ball back and forth leisurely. Caleb had told Harry yesterday that if he brought Zayn around, they would be willing to try and teach him a few basics. Real practice doesn't start for another few months but Harry figures Zayn can use all the help he can get.

The school doesn't know that Zayn isn't an Angel anymore. Mostly because nobody cares enough to find out but also because Zayn doesn't want anybody to know. His main reason was that it was 'embarrassing' and also that he thought maybe, if he tried hard enough, he could get people to change their minds about Angels. Harry thinks his plan could either go really well, or really badly.

"Hey Harry," Caleb greets once Harry is close enough, "Glad you could make it. It's colder than I thought it was going to be."

"We can handle a little cold," Harry responds, smiling as he pulls Zayn forward. "So this is Zayn. He's interested in playing baseball so I figured maybe if we get him enough practice, maybe he could make it on the team this season. I have a feeling he's going to be a natural."

And that's not even a total lie - Harry definitely has noticed Zayn's extraordinary hand-eye coordination and he figures that's just something left over from when he was an Angel. Either way, he hopes that Zayn can get into this because it’s obvious that he's seriously trying to make the most of being human.

Harry and Louis watch from the bleachers, huddled close together. Louis is like a furnace, which is greatly appreciated in this twenty degree December weather. Harry isn't sure how he does it but he finds he doesn't care as long as he doesn't stop.

"I think Zayn is going to be very good at this game," Louis muses as he watches Zayn catch yet another fly ball. "It would please Liam to know that Zayn is socializing. Apparently that's an important aspect of being human. I don't think Liam will be very good at it though."

Harry snorts, just trying to picture Liam in a social situation that doesn't include his family. "He better get used to it. Once he falls he's going to have to try it out. Humans get lonely."

"But he has Liam. And me and John and Landon. And you," Louis points out. "How can he get lonely?"

"You told me yourself - don't you get lonely sometimes since you're not around as many Angels as you're used to in heaven?"

"True... But it's different. We can still hear one another if we try hard enough."

"Well sometimes humans need to be around people other than their family. You know?"

"What about you, then?" Louis tilts his head and Harry resists the urge to kiss him. "Don't you get lonely? Only being around me and sometimes Niall?"

"Nah," Harry wraps his arm around Louis's shoulders, kissing the side of his head. "I could never get bored of you. You're the most entertaining person I've ever met in my life."

"Your life couldn't have been very entertaining then," Louis smiles, bumping Harry with his shoulder and Harry thinks that maybe, he could spend the rest of his life with this Angel.

\- - -

Liam is still gone when they get home from the baseball field. John tells them it's not a big deal - that he's just trying to get a better bargain than falling - but Harry can tell that it makes Louis nervous. He doesn't like when his family is in Heaven without him.

"I can't believe I actually have to bathe," Zayn grumbles, pushing past Harry to head for the first floor bathroom. "Fucking inconvenient."

"Get used to it."

He sends a glare Harry's way and slams the door behind him. Harry hears the shower turn on at the same time Louis pulls on his hand and leads him towards the stairs.

"Can we just go to bed and sleep for five days?" Harry asks as Louis pushes his bedroom door open. Today the walls are a dark blue, such a contrast from the lime green he experimented with the other day. Harry is grateful for the change- the green seriously hurt his eyes. Louis isn't the best at colors yet.

"I believe you have to celebrate the date of my Father's birth in two days. Which is, of course, an inaccurate date but I suppose it's the thought."

"I still don't understand why I'm celebrating and you're not. He created you - why don't you celebrate?"

Louis sits down on his bed and shrugs. "I'm always grateful for him. I don't need a specific date to celebrate that."

"Low blow, man," Harry teases, lying down against the wall. "He's not even around. How are you still grateful for an absent father?"

"Harry, I don't wish to discuss this sort of thing with you. You would never understand... The faith I have-"

"Okay okay, you're right. New subject."

Louis doesn't miss a beat, heading right for the topic that would make Harry the most uncomfortable. "Zayn asked me if we had sex yet."

Harry groans, rolling over and smothering himself with Louis's pillow. "It would be ridiculous of me to ask if you told him it was none of his business, huh?"

"I told him no, but that we've done other things. He called you a prude but I don't see how that's applicable..."

"Just because we haven't had sex doesn't make me a prude," Harry protests, although he doesn't know why he bothers. "Anyway, next time someone asks you about your sex life? Don't tell them anything. It's not their business."

He's had this discussion what feels like a hundred million times but Louis will probably never grasp it. He doesn't understand the concept of privacy. At all. His brothers know more about Harry than Harry would ever want anybody knowing.

"I will try and remember that," Louis says as he curls up beside Harry. "I'll probably forget."

Harry sighs and reaches up to card his fingers through Louis's hair. "I don't doubt it, babe."

They're both silent for a few moments, listening to Zayn yell at John about needing clean towels and shampoo. It must be strange, living in a house with a fallen Angel who suddenly is so needy, Harry thinks, fingers still tangled in Louis's hair. He looks down and smiles at the peaceful look on his face. "You know we haven't had sex not because I don't want to, right?"

Louis hums, "Sex is important," he mumbles, "Special. Too soon."

"Well yes," Harry agrees, thankful that his sex-ed talk at least sort of stuck. "But also because I don't trust myself to be careful - with my hands, I mean. I'm afraid I'd get so distracted by how good you make me feel that I'd do something I'd regret. You know?"

"Of course I understand, Harry."

Harry grins and leans down, pressing his lips to Louis's and sliding his hand down to the back of his neck. His skin is so warm and smooth that Harry can't get enough. He moves his other hand to his side, pushing up his shirt and splaying his fingers there. Louis sighs contently, kissing back with just as much enthusiasm. Harry feels his wings pin back, away from Harry's hand almost instinctively.

"Love you," Louis mutters between kisses.

Harry nips at his lower lip and laughs a little. "Yeah. I love you too."

He's found himself saying that so much more often now, and as he pushes Louis's shirt up, he decides he sort of likes it.

Clothes are shed a lot faster than Harry anticipated and he finds himself on his back shirtless, with his jeans being tugged down his legs. Louis has gotten pretty good at the whole 'undressing someone else' thing. Harry has taught him well.

Harry's fingers trace along Louis's spine, counting each bump and committing it to memory. Louis's body is beautiful and he never wants to forget it. The thought that there's always a possibility of losing this makes Harry's heart ache painfully. He can't lose this. This Angel - this person - is all he has really. At least, all he has that even matters.

Louis gasps as Harry flips them over, making sure to be careful of his wings (there's always a part of his mind that's dedicated to that and if he ever loses it, he's screwed). He pulls Louis's boxers off and tosses them over the side if the bed. They're closely followed by his own and he doesn't wait to watch where they land before moving back down to kiss at Louis's neck.

"Wanna try something new?" Harry asks him, leaving tiny bite marks along his shoulder blade. Louis squirms underneath him, panting and mumbling incoherent words. Harry thinks it’s not even English. It probably isn’t.

"I'm gonna take this reaction as a yes," he teases, hand moving down and wrapping around his erection.

Louis arches his back as Harry jerks him off as slowly as possible, fingers twisting into the fabric of the sheets beneath him. He closes his eyes and tilts his head back and Harry is pretty sure this is totally sending him straight to hell, having an Angel spread out in bed and looking like he needs an exorcism. But that only encourages him.

"You don't happen to have any lube do you?" Harry asks, expecting a breathy 'no' in response.

But Louis nods and says "I can if we need it," and the next thing Harry knows, there's a small packet of lube on the bed next to the pillow.

"You're so convenient."

"Sometimes," Louis returns, grinning and taking the packet and pressing it into Harry's palm. "Are you going to tell me what you need it for?"

Harry smirks and opens the packet, squeezing a small amount into his hands and coating two fingers. He leans in and presses himself close to Louis, moving one of his legs to wrap around Harry's waist as he whispers, "I'm going to finger you until you're screaming my name. Sound good to you?" He nips his earlobe and pulls back, finding Louis looking excited and a little bit nervous at the same time.

"Okay," he finally says, leaning in even closer and resting his forehead against Harry's shoulder. He shivers as Harry's fingers explore his skin, pressing where nobody else has ever been. He smiles shyly when Harry asks if he's sure it's okay.

"I'm just making sure," Harry mumbles, fingertip circling Louis's entrance. "It might hurt a little or feel a little weird at first but I promise it'll get so much better okay?"

"I trust you."

The first press of his fingertip has Louis gasping, one hand gripping Harry's upper arm. "Feels weird," he comments quietly as Harry presses inside.

"Gets better," Harry reminds him. He pushes the first finger all the way in, placing kisses along Louis's jaw and keeping a firm grip on his dick. There's only so much you can do to distract him from the weird feeling.

Harry knows when he's found Louis's prostate immediately, thanks to the way he moans and arches his back and presses back against Harry's finger all at once. Harry grins, pressing in a little bit harder and that makes him moan even louder. He won't be surprised if they get comments from Zayn when they go downstairs later. Harry will try not to think about that until he absolutely has to.

The second finger meets a little more resistance than the first but Louis doesn't give any sign of pain or discomfort. He presses even closer to Harry and gives tiny moans of pleasure and his fingers grip his shoulder as if he's holding on for dear life. Harry’s never been with anyone else like this despite his confidence but he never expected his first person to be as responsive as Louis is. Needless to say, his ego gets a huge boost whenever they're together like this.

Louis squirms as Harry presses his fingers in a little bit faster and a little bit harder, panting his name and arching his back every time Harry finds his prostate. Harry just grins and keeps going, feeling Louis's heartbeat increase with each passing second and he knows the Angel isn't going to last very much longer, judging by his reactions.

"Come on baby," Harry encourages, kissing him gently. He presses his tongue against Louis's lips and he lets him in immediately, letting him explore his mouth. Louis has become one of the best kissers Harry has ever met in only a short time. Harry thinks it’s because of his superb teaching skills, not because Angels are just really good observers and really fast learners.

Finally Louis reaches his climax with a cry of Harry's name and his come all over his chest and Harry's hand. He collapses into Harry's arms immediately, exhausted from the orgasm. He always tends to become totally boneless and pliant after they do things like this. It's probably the closest he'll ever get to sleeping, Harry thinks.

"I love you Harry," the Angel mutters as Harry cleans them up with a shirt from the floor.

"I Love you too. Glad you clearly enjoyed that."

Louis blushes and hides his face in the pillow and Harry laughs, wrapping an arm around his waist and cuddling him close.

\- - -

"Angel down," John says when Louis and Harry walk into the kitchen later on that night. He's sitting at the table, reading what looks big enough to be a bible. He looks sad and worn and tired and Harry feels awful for him.

"Liam is home?" Louis clarifies, rushing to sit down beside John. "How is he? Has it started? Did they tell him anything? Did Adam-"

"Adam tried to bribe him to come back. But obviously Liam said no. He fell - it's already started. He went upstairs to be with Zayn. We probably won't see either of them for a day or so, until Zayn can't handle Liam's pain on his own anymore."

Harry swallows hard, tries to push aside the uneasiness he's feeling. He wishes this were easier - that his Angels didn't have to go through any of it. He knows he can't do anything about it now but he just feels like maybe, if he had kept his distance all those months ago instead of ignoring his instinct and practically attaching himself to Louis, everything would be different.

\- - -

Since Christmas is such a strange concept to Louis, Harry isn't expecting a gift or anything from him. He spends the morning with his parents, eating pancakes and opening gifts and being lazy. Luckily, there are no plans for the rest of the day so Harry is free to do whatever he wants. So he goes up to his room with his new computer and new clothes and collapses into his bed, intent on just relaxing for an hour or so and maybe going back downstairs to eat again. The last thing he expected was Louis appearing in the middle of his room, covered in sand and holding a plant.

"I really don't know what to say to you anymore," Harry says, watching as Louis sets the plant down on his desk and starts brushing the sand off his clothes. He notices that the sand doesn't fall to Harry's bedroom floor - it just disappears.

"I apologize, I was in The Sahara Desert."

"Oh, the Sahara," Harry nods, leaning against his headboard, "I hear it's so nice this time of year."

"Hardly," Louis shakes his head, missing Harry's sarcasm as always. "However, it had something I needed so I went. Only took a few moments."

"You needed a plant?" Harry questions, eying the pot on the desk. It looks like an average, everyday cactus that you could buy at a plant nursery but the standout feature? The vibrant red flower. "It looks...nice."

"Isn't it lovely?" Louis gushes, reaching and grabbing the plant in his hands again. "I saw it the last time I was there, a few hundred years ago. And I thought you might like it. So I'm giving it to you. As a gift. Because that's what humans do on Christmas." He fidgets and shifts his weight from one foot to another and as if he suddenly doubts himself he asks, "Isn't it?"

"It is," Harry assures him, standing up and walking closer. He takes the cactus and looks at it. It is actually a nice looking plant, he guesses. "I love it, thank you. But... How am I supposed to keep it alive if it’s supposed to live in the Sahara?"

Louis's expression brightens, "Oh, I can help with that! I made sure it won't die. As long as I'm alive, it stays alive."

"Cute. You and your weirdo Angel mojo," Harry ruffles his hair and puts the plant on his bedside table. He won't tell anyone but he wants to keep it in sight as much as possible - it'll be an easy way to make sure Louis is okay. Whether Louis knows it or not, he gave Harry the best gift possible. Harry thinks he knows.

"I got you something," Harry says, smiling at the look of joy on Louis's face. "I figured you're responsible enough to have this now."

He opens his closet door and picks up the recently filled aquarium off his shelf. Once Louis catches sight of it, his eyes widen and he grins and Harry hasn't seen him so excited over something since he explained the concept of mini golf that one time last weekend. "Merry Christmas," Harry says, handing the small tank over to his Angel.

Inside there are two small goldfish, green gravel, some small decorations and a filter. Louis sets it down on the desk, careful not to spill any water out, and sits down in the chair in front of it.

"This is for me?" He asks, as if making sure. "Really?"

"I figure a part of being human is taking part in the task of keeping goldfish alive. Let's see how well you do."

"I'll take great care of them!" He assures Harry and for some reason, Harry doesn't doubt that in the slightest.

\- - -

Three hours later and Louis is carving tiny little symbols into the wooden frames around Harry's windows and doors. He's barely moving a muscle, eyes boring into the wood and suddenly there's a brand new sigil there, tiny and barely noticeable unless you're looking for it.

"How does this help me again?"

Louis sighs and rolls his eyes. "They're to keep you safe. I already did this once before but these ones are more specific - to keep Adam away from you. And your family, once I finish with the rest of your home."

"Oh. That's ... Nice of you. Just don't let my mother know. She'd flip out if she knew you're etching things into her windows and doors."

"They're not 'things', they're sigils intended solely to protect all of you. I would hope she would understand that."

"No," Harry shakes his head, double checking the door is locked with a quick glance. "What she would understand is that you're carving things into her precious window and door frames."

"Then I'll make sure she doesn't know. It'll take less than a minute, anyway."

"Good. Then we can go do all the fun things we have planned - oh. Right. We don't have any. Because our town is boring as hell. I wish we could be in New York or something. Christmas is exciting there."

Louis doesn't say anything, so Harry just lets it go. But fifteen minutes later, they're sitting outside on the front stops trying to figure out where to go. Harry can't be inside any longer - he feels like he's going to go crazy. He doesn't want to be around Liam and Zayn because they're depressing - one being in pain and the other coughing up his lungs because of bronchitis. No thanks.

"We could go into town and see if any coffee shops are open," Harry suggests, hands deep in his pockets as he keeps warm. "And maybe walk around and check out all the Christmas lights that people have up. But other than that..."

"We could go to Times Square," Louis says evenly, slipping his right hand into Harry's left pocket. His warm fingers tangle with Harry's ice cold ones. "Isn't there a Christmas tree there? A famous one?"

"Well we could. If we could teleport."

"Well we could... I could take you with me when I -"

"Oh God," Harry groans, leaning his head back and glaring at the sky. "You mean your freaky Angel transportation shit?"

"Sure; we could call it that... I know you've never done it but that's only because I didn't think you'd be fond of it."

"Oh I've done it," Harry corrects him, "Adam introduced me to it. It's awful - I felt dizzy and gross and I could barely function."

Louis frowns, furrows his eyebrows. "Well then, he was careless about it. You wouldn't feel like that. I promise Harry."

And Harry knows that Louis keeps promises. It's almost as if he cannot break them - like something prevents him from doing so. Now that he thinks about it, that's probably accurate.

"Well...We can't just... Appear in the middle of Times Square and ..."

"Why not? We could be back before midnight..."

And it's appealing. Really it is but does Harry want to do this? Go to New York City for a few hours and have fun and then what? Just come back home as if they've just been in town doing nothing? It would be strange and Harry isn't sure if he'd be able to just go along with this without freaking out.

"Come on, Harry. You said you want to do something fun. Let’s go. Nobody would be missing us. I can have us back in seconds."

Louis has gotten good at being convincing. "Fine. We can go."

And Louis is right - he doesn't feel dizzy or nauseous or confused or any of the things he felt when Adam did it to him. Instead he just finds himself suddenly not on his front porch and instead in the middle of a packed Times Square, looking up at a Christmas tree that he's always just seen on TVs.

"Shit, this is freaky," he mumbles, glancing around and finding that nobody has even given their arrival a second glance. They're all a little too distracted.

"Well this is lovely," Louis says, and he looks so content to be just standing here staring at a tree. "I don't think I expected it to be this shiny."

As he finishes his sentence, someone knocks into him, sending him stumbling forward and almost crashing into someone else. Harry's heart almost leaps out of his chest as he reaches out and tries to steady him, pulling him in close. He wraps his arms around Louis at a weird angle and glares at the man who shoved him.

"This was a fucking terrible idea," he hisses into Louis's ear, tightening his hold as someone else walks a little too closely for his liking. "Being here is like basically asking for someone to claim you!"

"Oh," Louis says in a small voice, leaning on Harry and Harry feels him press his wings even closer together.

"Just... Okay. It's fine," Harry says quickly, because he knows that Louis is disappointed that his plans aren't working out like he wanted. "Just stick really close to me. I won't let anything bad happen."

The Angel just nods, standing completely still and letting Harry manhandle him and tug him towards a section of sidewalk that is a little less densely populated. They still have a decent view of the tree, but now just a little bit safer.

"I've got you," Harry promises again, arms tightly secured around Louis's waist. "And you were right - this was a good idea."

Louis hums in agreement and seems to totally not mind Harry being all protective and possessive. "There are other Angels here," he says quietly.

"Really? Here?"

"One, definitely. Maybe two. I can't be positive."

"Do you like... Know where they are exactly?"

"No... I don't think they've taken human form. That's why I can't be sure how many. Spiritually, they're here."

"That's... Cool. Kind of weird though too. Definitely weird."

"You're such an ass, Harry," Louis says but Harry can tell that he doesn't really mean it by the way he smiles and shakes his head and squeezes his hand. "Let me know when you want to go back home."

"Not yet. Maybe we can look around a bit. You don't get to just come to New York City any time you want, do you?"

"Technically, we can," Louis points out.

"Yeah well. Let's not make a habit of this."

"Okay. Can we at least make a habit of it on occasion? Because I know you would love Las Vegas."

Harry snorts. "For the gambling and strippers?"

"No... For the culture and scenery."

"Oh of course. Yes, because every guy goes to Vegas for the culture and scenery."

Louis nods and says in his 'serious Angel voice', "I would think so."

"Oh, Louis," Harry says, shaking his head as he turns Louis around to face him again. "You have so much to learn about Sin City."

"What is Sin City?" Louis questions as Harry tugs him along, heading away from the busy crowds. "Harry?"

"Trust me. When we go there after we graduate this June, I'll teach you all about it. Deal?"

"I don't like the sound of it..."

"No, you probably shouldn't."

Louis gives him a nervous look and Harry just laughs, continuing on his walk away from the tree. He has no idea where he's going but he's sure he'll find something interesting. It's New York City, after all, and they've got all night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 21 chapters. They’re all written, I just need to edit them. Please leave me some encouragement!


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More smut and more fluff. Only Louis can made something sexual oh so cute!

The rest of December is strange for Harry. Not strange in a bad way, just... Not what he was expecting. It's New Year's Eve and Harry is at Louis's house - and so is his mother.

"Now, you have to tell me if your cough gets worse," she's saying to Liam, who's sitting on the living room couch wrapped in two blankets and eating chicken soup out of a bowl she brought over. "Either you call me or you tell Harry and he'll tell me. You make sure you keep warm and keep drinking the soup I brought. Got me?"

Harry wants to laugh at the expression on Liam's face, because he's been the one in this situation millions of times. He's been his mom's patient since he was born, basically, and has had to deal with her and her annoying diagnosis and recommendations for as long as he can remember. She's an overbearing nurse. It's a struggle he's lived with for quite some time.

"Okay," Liam tells her, glancing quickly at Zayn beside him. "I'll do that."

Harry's mother smiles and starts packing her things away and Harry has to hold his laughter in. It's been a weird week, ever since his mom decided she actually likes Angels more than she ever let on and wants to help them. She wants to help so much, in fact, that she even got John a small job at the hospital, working in the NICU. He had been there one day last week, tagging alongside Harry and Louis while Harry dropped off important papers that his mother had left at home and 'absolutely needed immediately'. The two prematurely born babies that Mrs. Styles had under her care and were squirming and fussing immediately calmed when John stood near them. After that, they discovered that John just seems to give off a good aura and Harry's mother got him a job filing papers and other small jobs in the NICU center. It wasn't quite something that Harry expected to happen but hey. Just one step closer to getting Angels more accepted in the real world, isn't it?

Landon was surprised to discover John's new career choice, dropping by just the day before for an impromptu visit only to find John wasn't even around.

"He's ... Hanging out with premature babies?" He had asked, clearly stumped as to why his mate would even bother with something like that. But then he quickly composed himself, smiling and shaking his head. "Man, Harry. Adam's hatred for you is only going to increase once he finds out about this."

Harry doesn't care (Landon reassured him that he shouldn't) and hopes that next, he can find some way for Liam to start fitting into society, now that he's 'turning human' and all.

"I'll see you at home Harry," is the last thing Harry hears before his mothers heels click along the hardwood floor towards the front door. She turns and smiles at him and says, "And don't forget. Be on time."

He cringes when she shuts the door behind her. He'd forgotten all about tonight and the fact that he's supposed to be bringing Louis over for dinner to meet his dad before his parents go out to a New Year’s party. It's not exactly something he's been looking forward to. It's not that his dad isn't going to approve, exactly... He's just probably going to seriously question why the fuck Harry would want to get himself so involved with an Angel. Not to mention, said Angel's entire family.

"I wish I could witness that event," Zayn snorts, passing Liam a water bottle from the coffee table. "Man. Louis meeting Harry's dad. That'll be so entertaining."

"I don't see the amusement that you're anticipating," Louis says, looking confused. He turns to Harry and asks, "Am I missing something or is this one of those times where I'm supposed to tell him to shut up?"

Harry just rolls his eyes and takes it upon himself to say," Shut the fuck up and take care of your immunocompromised boyfriend."

"I'm not immunocompromised!" Liam shouts after them as they leave the living room, "It's just not fully formed!"

They hear him break out into a coughing fit and Harry smirks, pressing Louis down into one of the kitchen chairs. "So, I’m going to warn you again – my dad will probably ask you a lot of questions tonight.”

"I'll do my best to answer them," Louis says quickly, looking up at Harry and Harry thinks he's still a little confused. He confirms that when he tilts his head and looks away and asks, mostly to himself, "Will his questions be unusually difficult? Should I practice?"

"No, you don't have to practice," Harry laughs, pulling a chair up next to him and sitting down. "It'll be fine. He'll just be curious, is all. He doesn't typically take too much interest in my love life or anything but since he's kind of being forced to, he'll definitely have questions. And you don't have to answer them if you feel like he doesn't need to know. Alright?"

Louis seems to contemplate this for a moment, furrowing his eyebrows as he probably thinks of a million different things that Harry's father could want to know. Finally, he gently shrugs his shoulders and lets the thought go. "Okay."

"Awesome. And then, once they leave for their party, we can do whatever we want. Niall invited us to this party that he's going to but I don't really feel like being in a packed house with people I don't even like. What do you think?"

"Whatever you want," he answers - as always - and smiles, reaching out and taking Harry's hand in his own. "Why is New Years so important to humans anyway? Even Zayn is making a big deal of it."

"He is?"

Louis nods, "He told me that Caleb and Garrett invited him to their party and that he was planning on going for a bit and then coming home to be with Liam."

Harry smiles, happy to hear that Zayn is actually going out and socializing on his own. He knew that he'd gotten along really well with Caleb and Garrett during their baseball lessons over the past week and a half, but he had figured that because they still assumed Zayn was an Angel, they wouldn't want much to do with him outside of practice. "I'm glad that Zayn can handle himself on his own," Harry says, squeezing Louis's hand in his own, "Parties are fun. He'll enjoy himself."

"You still haven't told me why tonight is a big deal," Louis stubbornly points out.

"Oh. Well..." Harry's cheeks turn pink, "I dunno... I guess it's just a way to forget about everything that happened in the past year that didn't go the way you wanted it to, and a way to vow that the next year will be better. You know?"

Louis scrunches up his nose, "Human traditions will never make sense to me."

"Basically," Harry says, leaning forward and using both hands to cup Louis's face, "At midnight I'm going to make out with you and pray to God that you're still with me this time next year."

"Oh," Louis breathes, laughing softly and threading his fingers into Harry's hair. "Well then I guess I'll pray for that too."

"That's good, because I have a feeling your prayers might be a little more priority than mine would be."

\---

Dinner isn't awkward, but it is frustrating and all Harry wants to do is get up and go upstairs and wait for his parents to go out so he and Louis can just make out and watch movies in peace. But his dad is practically quizzing Louis on Angels and their behaviors and purposes that it's practically impossible to even try and get a word in. So Harry just pouts and slumps on his seat and pushes the food around his plate while his mom smiles at him.

"Give your dad a break - he's trying, Harry. Isn't that a good thing?"

And sure, it's nice that his dad is finally paying attention and trying to get to know Harry's boyfriend but does he have to be so...annoying about it?

"And how many of you even are there? Hundreds? Thousands?"

Louis blinks. "Millions, actually. There are millions of us. Only a hundred or so are actually on Earth, though. We're rebelling... In a way."

The second he hears 'rebelling', Harry's dad widens his eyes and in comes a whole new level of curiosity and fascination. But luckily, before he even gets a chance to ask another question, Harry's mother excuses them and tells her husband it's getting late and they need to start getting ready. Harry has never gotten up from a table faster in his life.

"Your father's very kind," Louis says as they're walking up the staircase, "He knows a little bit about everything, it seems."

"Yeah. I guess. Most of the time that just gets annoying," he explains, pushing open his bedroom door. He's about to continue on with his statement, but then he catches sight of his bedroom and his jaw drops and he's more than a lot confused.

His bed is gone and the walls are now a dark blue instead of the light blue they had been when he woke up this morning. There are blankets and sheets and pillows covering the floor from wall to wall, and the ceiling is black with tiny glow in the dark stars. Harry picks his jaw up from the floor, barely manages to compose himself, and asks, "Who gave you permission to come in my room?" while still staring at the star studded ceiling.

He feels Louis move in closer to him, feels his breath on the back of his neck as he answers, "I gave myself permission. I wanted to do something nice for you. And Zayn gave me some ideas... I hope you like it?"

Harry can practically hear the confidence slip from Louis's voice, so he turns around and their noses are practically touching, standing in the middle of his bedroom doorframe as he assures him, "I love it. Thanks. Zayn told you to do this?"

"We used John's computer - he mentioned something about buying one of his own - anyway." Louis pushes Harry further into the room, barely putting any force behind the shove but managing to get him to take three steps in. He closes and locks the door behind them, turning back to Harry and still wearing that trademark innocent and eager smile. "He used Google. It can tell you everything! Did you know that? He-"

"Trust me, Louis," Harry laughs, "I know all there is to know about Google."

He sits down on the floor, in the middle of the large pile of sheets and blankets and pillows and he tugs on Louis's hand, bringing him down right beside him. He's about to open his mouth and ask him what movie he wants to watch, when he really gets a good look at the wall opposite them. There's a thin, flat screen TV that was absolutely not there when Harry woke up this morning. It has to be at least fifty inches - maybe more, even - and Harry cannot wrap his brain around this one.

"How the hell did you manage that?"

Louis shrugs cutely, and Harry is easily convinced that he really doesn't know. "Landon did it," he explains, pulling the long sleeves of his shirt over his fingers. "I didn't think to ask where he got it..."

Harry laughs, shaking his head at how innocent Louis is still. "Of course you didn't."

"I didn't think it was important at the time," Louis protests, leaning into Harry's side slightly, fingers still hidden by his sleeves. He's wearing the Yankees shirt that Harry won in a raffle a few years ago, now being a little too small for his lanky frame. It fits Louis just right - except when he stretches it out and hides himself in it.

"So," Harry says, wrapping one arm around Louis's shoulders and tucking him into his side while reaching for the stack of his DVDs that are now sitting against the wall. "Should we watch 'New Years Eve', or a classic like 'Star Wars'? Take your pick - we've got a few hours till we have to watch the ball drop."

Louis picks the romance chick-flick, which is exactly what Harry expected. Louis loves anything to do with romance and happy endings and a story with a moral. Or at least a hint at one. He has watched 'Uptown Girls' and 'Legally Blonde' more times than Harry can count. Harry doesn't mind - he gets to watch action movies with Zayn every so often, so it's okay.

Harry will admit - the changes Louis made to the room makes watching the movie so much more comfortable and intimate. The tiny stars on the ceiling add quite the romantic touch and the blankets on the floor somehow end up being just as comfortable as his mattress - and he has no idea how that's possible. Must be an Angel thing. By the end of the movie, Harry is half asleep, lying on his back and barely watching the movie while Louis is pressed up against him, one leg thrown over Harry's and one hand slid up the front of his shirt.

Harry knows it’s getting closer and closer to midnight but he's so content right now, with Louis in his arms and a shitty romance movie on the TV and Louis breathing on him that he can't bring himself to even speak. He just holds Louis closer, feels his wings stretch out away from him, and sighs deeply, knowing that no future New Year's Eve will ever be able to top this. Unless they're spent with Louis. Then they might be able to.

"I have a bad feeling about tomorrow," Louis whispers when the movie ends, eyes glued to the screen, as Harry realizes that maybe Louis isn't content as he assumed.

He flattens his palm against his upper back, a safe space behind his wings, and figures Louis has to be talking about the anticipated visit from Landon. "What's there to be nervous about? Isn't he just coming by to check in?"

"That's what he said," Louis confirms, nodding against Harry's shoulder. "But I've been hearing things. Not good things. I have a bad feeling that he's not going to be bringing us good news."

"Hearing things like what? From other Angels?"

"I'm afraid that the war is going to be ending very soon - and I don't think we will be on the winning side."

Harry hates talking about their war. He hates thinking about it too. The thought of it makes his blood run cold and his heart beat pick up the pace and his brain makes up all these stupid scenarios - and they're mostly not good. "So all of your fighting will be for nothing? I don't see how-"

"No, not for nothing. Just not enough. Adam has more power over us - a lot of us don't want to see what he does when he gets fed up with this whole thing."

"I thought he didn't have that much power over all of you? He's an Archangel, not God-"

Louis sighs, over dramatic as always, and says, "When God seems to be missing, or at the very least doesn't care about us at all, he has all the power the other Archangels will let him have. Which can only mean bad things for us."

"There are other Archangels?"

"Have you ever even opened a Bible, Harry?"

"No."

"Of course not. Yes, there are more Archangels. A few, actually. Gabriel is one - he's the one who first came to Earth to live with humans. He resides in Los Angeles now. He hasn't been to heaven in years."

"Well if an Archangel is all for living here, why the hell is there even an issue? Why can't Adam just leave it alone?"

"It's so complicated, Harry," Louis frowns, tangling their fingers together. "I don't even know all the details. What I do know is that he’s not going to just ‘leave it alone’ and that we will probably end up giving in before he can just kill us all-”

“Well then what happens?” Harry finds himself asking, sounding more demanding than curious but he can’t help himself. “You go back to Heaven? Leave me here and forget about me?”

Louis scoffs and pulls away, sitting up on his knees. “You are being ridiculous,” he says, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. “I would never forget about you.”

“But you’re not denying leaving me here.”

“I would never lie to you, Harry,” Louis says, his expression softening as he realizes just how distressed this conversation is making Harry feel. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. All I do know is that Zayn and Liam would still be with you and that of course I wouldn’t just leave you. I could visit you and-”

“And I would basically be in the middle of a custody battle with a bunch of Archangels. Sounds super appealing.”

“I don’t understand what you mean by that,” the Angel says calmly, tilting his head, “But right now, nothing’s certain so just…forget I ever said anything. I don’t want you to be worked up over this the entire night when I understand that it’s supposed to be special.”

Harry can’t bring himself to keep the conversation going. Mainly because he just doesn’t want to hear another word about the possibility of Louis leaving him at any time, but also because he can tell that Louis is getting upset by it as well. He expressed how nervous he was – he doesn’t need Harry making him feel worse about it.

“Okay fine. You’re right. Totally not the time to talk about this I guess.”

Louis watches him for a few moments, eyes boring into Harry and usually Harry would tell him to quit it – that that’s totally not a normal human thing to do – but he just lets it go, because Louis is not quite on his game today and Harry doesn’t want to upset him any more than he probably has already. When the Angel gets up and takes the DVD out of the player and switches the channel over to regular TV, Harry wonders how Louis could ever even go back to Heaven after living like this with Harry for all these months.

“What channel?” Louis asks as he sits back down, remote control in hand. He looks over at Harry for an answer. “The news channel?”

“I guess so,” Harry tells him, shrugging. “We still have like, twenty minutes.”

Harry watches flip through the channels, looking for the New Years countdown and he takes a moment to appreciate how lucky he is. Sure, most people would just call him crazy (and even this time last year, Harry would agree), but they don’t understand exactly how important Louis is to Harry. This clueless, innocent Angel has changed Harry’s life so drastically; he can barely even remember what it was like before him.

“That woman needs another jacket,” Louis states, staring at the TV. He’s finally stopped on MTV, and some girl is interviewing a few members of the crowd on the streets of the city. “Or maybe just some more material for her dress.”

Before Louis can even put the remote down and turn back to Harry, Harry tackles him, pressing him down into all the sheets and blankets and causing him to gasp in surprise and flail his arms in dramatic fashion.

“Ouch,” He mumbles, squirming underneath Louis and Harry can’t feel it, but he knows he’s just adjusting his wings so he’s not squishing them. He didn’t really take that into consideration when he decided to tackle him and put all of his weight on him. No big deal.

So Harry just sits up a little, relieving Louis of his weight just a bit, and says nothing. Instead, he leans his head down and captures Louis’s lips with his own, kissing him for the first time in a few hours and attempting to get Louis’s mind off of whatever’s going on in there. It can’t be easy being an Angel and being able to hear millions of thoughts and not being able to block them out.

"We're going to miss midnight," Louis says, breathing hard and hardly seeming to care very much about midnight or celebrating at all as Harry's fingers trace down his sides and his lips leave a trail of kisses along his neck. Harry can kind of hear the girl on the TV, reporting from Times Square and talking about how many crystals the ball has and Harry just decides he doesn't even care anymore.

"Midnight happens every day," Harry points out, "We can catch it tomorrow."

"No, but this midnight is important, Harry. You said so yourself-"

Harry smiles against his skin, knowing Louis's arguing is pointless - he's got him right where he wants him. "Shh,” he whispers, moving over so they’re lying side by side. Louis pants, catching his breath and waiting for Harry to tell him that fine, they can watch the ball drop. But it never comes, and Harry just reaches out and tugs off the shirt that Louis is wearing, messing up his hair in the process.

“W-what-?” Louis manages to ask as Harry’s shirt follows close behind. “I thought-”

“I realized,” Harry starts explaining, fingers messing with the button on Louis’s jeans. “I realized that I totally failed you as your boyfriend.”

“You’ve done no such thing,” Louis protests, reaching down and shoving Harry’s hands out of the way, “You’ve been-”

Harry shakes his head, leans in close and whispers, “I never taught you how to give a blowjob.”

“O-oh. Is that something sexual? It sounds sexual-”

“Yes, Louis. So can you just chill and listen and I’ll teach you all you need to know?”

Louis stares at him, blue eyes wide and curious and confused all at the same time. Finally, he shrugs and pops the buttons on his jeans, kicking them down his legs. “Fine.”

Harry hadn’t planned this – hadn’t even thought of this – but suddenly it really just seemed like a good idea. Because Louis is stressed, and as a result now Harry is stressed, and what’s better to relieve stress than a blowjob? Nothing, as far as Harry is concerned and as far as experience has him believing. And he knows that this is probably not going to be easy but hey, when is anything with Louis ever easy?

But when Harry explains to Louis exactly how this is supposed to go, Louis scrunches up his nose and shakes his head, repeating that cannot be sanitary four or five times before Harry sighs and hangs his head, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes. He’s hard and horny and now he’s pretty sure that this is totally not going to happen. “You’re an Angel – do you really need to worry about being sanitary?” he tries to reason, hearing Louis sigh in irritation and when he looks up, he witnesses Louis roll his eyes so dramatically, he can almost hear it.

“I might be an Angel but that doesn’t mean I can’t be concerned.”

This entire thing has become more frustrating than Harry thinks it’s worth, and he reaches for his boxers that had been tossed to the side and starts slipping them up his legs, saying, “Forget it, then. We’ll just watch the ball drop and go to sleep and forget about it.”

Louis grabs his wrist before he can even get the boxers past his thighs and squeezes, biting his lip as he meets Harry’s eyes. He doesn’t say anything, just pulls his boxers back off, pushing them away and pressing at Harry’s shoulders so he lies flat on his back in the midst of all the blankets and pillows. Harry tries to reason with him, saying, “Really, Louis. I’m not going to be mad if we don’t-” but Louis cuts him off with a kiss and Harry figures hey, he tried.

The girl from the New Years Countdown on the TV is still talking, a mile a minute and overly excited, about how close to midnight it is and Harry is barely even registering it, watching as Louis shifts onto his knees between Harry’s legs, looking nervous and concerned about this whole thing. Harry wants to tell him to stop – that if he doesn’t want to do this, he really doesn’t have to. But he can also tell that Louis seems pretty determined to prove himself, and Harry knows Louis will stop if he wants.

After a few seconds hesitation and a glance up at Harry to make sure that yes, he’s starting off right, Louis bites his lower lip and takes Harry’s erection in his hand, barely squeezing and barely putting any pressure at all. Harry’s breath hitches in his throat at the touch, as always when Louis has his hands on him like this. He watches as Louis hesitantly leans down and finally – fucking finally – wraps his lips around the head of Harry’s lips and fuck, Harry barely manages to remind himself to not buck his hips up and to not choke Louis the first time he sucks dick. That would probably be rude. Yeah, definitely rude.

Louis’s movements are slow and planned out but he somehow manages to make this the best fucking blow job Harry has ever gotten in his short life. He’s not sure if that’s just because Louis is an Angel, and therefore a master at basically everything he tries to learn, or if it’s just because it’s Louis, and anything Louis does is awesome and wonderful and perfect in Harry’s eyes. Either way, the way Louis has his lips perfectly tight around him, and his tongue pressed against the underside of his dick, has Harry panting and fisting his hands in the sheets, barely able to form coherent words aside from fuck and Louis and so good and sometimes a combination of the three. He can feel himself getting closer and closer to his orgasm, the feeling spreading through his body and he knows it won’t be long. Louis’s fingers wrapped around the base take care of whatever Louis doesn’t fit in his mouth and Harry can’t help but reach down and let his own hand tangle into Louis’s hair, just barely putting any pressure on him. At this, Louis glances up at him, peering at Harry through his eyelashes in that innocent and adorable way and that just about does it for Harry.

“Fuck – Louis, stop,” Harry manages to get out, tightening his grip on his hair and tugging back, pulling him off his dick just as he comes. Louis doesn’t pull away far enough, because the white streaks of Harry’s come paint his chest and even his chin and he scrunches up his nose in that cute way that only Louis can manage and Harry just groans and throws his arm over his eyes, panting and catching his breath and fuck that was better than he anticipated it would be.

“This would have been in my mouth,” Louis states and Harry looks at him just in time to see him wipe the mess off his chin and Harry has to resist the urge to tell him how hot he just looked. “That’s gross.”

“Yeah well. I should have warned you a bit sooner I guess,” Harry apologizes, still catching his breath. “But still. That was fucking awesome.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, because I don’t anticipate it happening again.” 

“Sure babe. Sure”

Louis glares at Harry and shakes his head and pulls on the t-shirt that’s closest to him. It turns out to be Harry’s and it’s a little too big but that only makes Louis look even sexier, if possible. But Harry won’t tell him that – because it would require an explanation as to why wearing a different shirt would cause someone to look better and Harry just does not have the energy. He curls up next to Harry and looks back at the TV and the next thing Harry hears is a discouraged sigh. “We missed midnight.”

Harry looks up at the screen, sees the time that the program has in the corner, takes in the excited and overjoyed looks on the people’s faces and the confetti on the ground and yeah. Looks like they did. And it hits Harry that maybe this whole New Years thing did actually mean a lot to Louis – it is his first one, after all – so he gets up, pulls on his boxers and flips off the TV, leaving them in darkness. Louis watches him with careful eyes as he walks to the opposite side of the room, where his alarm clock is sitting on the floor along with the other things that used to occupy his bedside table that has mysteriously disappeared with his bed. He picks it up, flips it over and turns the time back to eleven fifty-nine.

Louis looks confused when he sits back down beside him and hands him the alarm clock. “Time doesn’t work like that,” He says softly, looking down at the numbers.

“No,” Harry agrees, “But we can pretend, I guess.”

He contemplates it for a moment, as if he’s deciding if Harry is a moron or not, but then he finally grins and nods and throws his arms around Harry’s neck, whispering, “Happy New Year, Harry” just before the time turns to 12:00 and Harry just smiles to himself, holds Louis close and hopes that this time next year, nobody will have taken Louis away from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments please! It’ll mean the world to me!


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst. That’s all. 
> 
> TW-there’s mentions of a stab wound and blood but it’s not graphic or anything

Landon’s anticipated visit doesn’t happen the day after New Years, like he said it would. In fact, it doesn’t happen the next day either. Or the one after that. Harry is worried - pretty sure that something bad has happened to him and they just don’t know it yet – but Louis isn’t.

“He’s very busy right now. Calm down and don’t be stupid,” he had said in that calm tone and simply ruffled his dumb wings in Harry’s face as if to piss him off even more than he already was at being called stupid. Harry won’t even deny the fact that he plucked one of his feathers out just out of spite.

So Harry convinces himself not to worry. He guesses it’s best for him to just believe John and Louis when they say that Landon is okay. He sits through classes, spends his time staring at the back of Louis’s head in History, passing him cute notes in Math. Doing everything but paying attention to the lessons. He figures that early college acceptance letters are already written up for the most part, maybe even in the mail already, and slacking off won’t hurt him too much. Louis tries to convince him otherwise but Harry knows that Louis doesn’t actually know a single thing about the education system and is just bluffing.

“My biggest issue with being human is not the fact that I’m basically useless,” Zayn is saying during lunch, not even caring that Niall is sitting with them today. He carries on as if Niall’s always there, just another part of their group, when in reality, this is only the second or third time since reconciling with Harry that he’s felt comfortable to sit with them. “The biggest issue is that the sex is not nearly as great as it was before.”

Harry groans and instantly looks over at Niall, ready to apologize for Zayn’s gross comments. But Niall is just laughing and doesn’t seem too grossed out. So Harry leaves it. Besides…if he’s really honest, he’s kind of interested in hearing what else Zayn has to say about this subject. He’s only human, what can he say.

“And that’s not even an insult towards my boyfriend,” he carries on, nudging Liam beside him. “He agrees with me.”

“It’s not as intense,” Liam agrees, and Harry is shocked because normally, Liam hates when Zayn talks about personal relationship things. “But it’s still good. Just not as good.”

“Okay I’m officially uncomfortable,” Niall announces, and Harry laughs, nodding in agreement. “New subject.”

“My sex life is the most interesting thing you’ll hear about all day,” Zayn tries to protest, but Liam elbows him and he shuts up, moaning about his ribs bruising and not being able to practice with Caleb and Garrett later.

Zayn has really embraced human socializing. And, still thinking that he’s an Angel, Caleb and Garrett have basically accepted him as one of their friends. They hang out and practice baseball on weekends and they don’t act as if they’re afraid of claiming him every time he gets close and it’s nice seeing Zayn have friends outside of his family members. Harry is still working on Liam. But he figures that will probably take a lot more effort, considering how quiet and shy Liam can be.

The rest of the afternoon goes by with Harry getting back an A on a paper and Louis accidentally pulling the fire alarm during ninth period. It was completely accidental – his backpack strap somehow got caught and, well. Harry is still trying to figure out exactly how it was possible but at least Louis didn’t get in any trouble and the whole school was allowed to leave twenty minutes early. So, technically Louis is a total badass and saved everyone from the last twenty minutes of their classes. Too bad the Angel couldn’t care less about being badass.

“I don’t understand humans,” Louis sighs after Harry tries explaining how being badass is a totally great thing as they enter his house. “I don’t think I ever really will.”

He doesn’t sound upset by that, as he probably would have a few months ago. He just sounds confused and exhausted. Harry doesn’t blame him.

“It’s okay. You’re a badass to me. That’s all that matters.”

Harry’s expecting a response, but Louis has stopped walking in the middle of the living room. He’s staring at the kitchen door, as if he can see right through it, and Harry realizes – he probably fucking can.

“Landon’s here,” the Angel finally says, sighing and shrugging his backpack off his shoulders. “And he doesn’t have good news.”

\- - -

Landon looks awful. Harry is used to him being put together and calm and collected and right now, he’s anything but. His jacket has a huge rip in the side, his hair is a mess and he looks nervous. He’s leaning up against the kitchen counter, biting his lip and looking like he’s trying to organize his thoughts. Harry has never seen an Angel this out of sorts before.

“Sorry I’m late,” Landon finally says, looking between the five of them. “I um. Sort of had to take a lot of extra precautions. Adam has me pretty high on his hit list these days.”

“Are you okay?” John asks. He looks like he’s seconds away from getting up and walking over to him, to investigate for himself. “You look terrible.”

Landon laughs – a sort of sad and disappointed laugh. “Yeah, well. I’m not exactly here to give you guys very good news. We need to start discussing our next course of action. While I haven’t met with Adam myself – I’m not suicidal – I have been hearing things. And I’m fairly positive that the sources are reliable.”

Harry feels his hands shaking. His heart is pounding in his chest and he doesn’t want to hear any of this. He’s useless. He can’t help them in any way. He doesn’t want to hear about what’s going to happen if he can’t help. Louis inches closer to him, lets his hand rest on Harry’s knee, but it doesn’t help much at all.

“Basically, Adam is pretty fuckin’ sick of everything going on. He’s sick of us thinking we don’t have to ‘obey orders’ if they don’t come from God himself. I know it’s only a matter of time before he gets sick of putting up and really starts taking the control that he’s capable of. The other Archangels don’t care what he does.”

“That’s hardly fair,” Zayn says, and Liam elbows him for the second time today to make him shut up.

Landon glares at him, “I don’t think you should be commenting like that, considering you’re one of the three people in this room who are in the most danger, Zayn. You can’t defend yourself. You’re a perfect target. And if he gets his hands on you, there’s not much anyone can do.”

“I could fight them,” Zayn mumbles, but even Harry knows that’s bullshit.

“Whatever, you aren’t the one I’m mostly concerned about. I don’t think he’d go after you or Liam. Not as much as I think he’d go after Harry.”

“Me?” Harry slips, leaning forward in his seat. “Why would he want me? I’m useless.”

“No, you’re not useless. He could seriously use you to his advantage,” John points out, and Landon nods and Harry slumps backwards in his seat.

“Honestly, Harry?” Landon says, looking reluctant to continue. He glances at John and John just nods, telling him to go on. Louis’s hand tightens on his knee and that’s how he knows that he’s really screwed. “You’re the best bargaining chip that Adam could get his hands on.”

\- - -

Turns out, despite the fact that Harry is so deeply involved in their situation, the Angels still don’t want him listening in on their discussions. Harry was only slightly offended by it – slightly only because he was really tired and emotionally drained and he wanted to just sleep until next year when all this could be over. So Louis took him home, told him not to leave the house until the next morning for school and that’s the last Harry hears from him. He walks to school alone, sits through classes alone and eats lunch with Niall. Zayn and Liam are both gone as well and it’s just unusually quiet without them around.

“Is that…a plant?” Niall asks when Harry opens his locker to get his books for his last class. “A cactus?”

Harry blinks. He forgot he put that in there. “Oh. It is,” he says, shoving his textbook in his backpack. He looks at the plant, the one that Louis gave him for Christmas, and suddenly feels kind of dumb. It’s still alive. The flower is still thriving. Louis is perfectly fine. Harry doesn’t know why he’s worrying so much. “Don’t worry about it,” He says, closing his locker.

“I know that Louis isn’t here, but seriously man. You’re acting like you’re never going to see him again.”

Harry’s heart aches at that statement. Niall’s wrong – he could never see Louis again. Anything could happen, and the Angels could be out of here without another word to him. But he just fakes a smile and nods in agreement, despite knowing how wrong he is.

\- - -

Landon is waiting for Harry outside in the parking lot, and when Harry sees him, he almost just throws up on the spot. Because Landon waiting for him in the school parking lot does not exactly end up in Harry’s list of ‘good signs’. But Landon laughs when he sees Harry’s concerned expression and instantly, Harry calms down.

“Don’t be nervous, I’m not bringing you any more bad news,” Landon informs him when he’s gotten closer, “I’m just here to walk you home. Because the last thing I need is for Adam grabbing you off the streets like he did that last time. Louis would never let me hear the end of it, you know?”

“Why can’t Louis do it?” Harry asks, “Not that I don’t appreciate you or anything…”

“Louis is occupied elsewhere. I’m here though. No worries.”

And Harry isn’t really worried. Not for himself, at least. More for Louis. But he knows that the plant in his backpack is still living so he feels slightly better. But then again, he’s carrying around a plant and being walked home by an Angel to prevent kidnapping. So that makes him feel pretty fucking dumb.

As they get closer and closer to Harry’s house, Landon starts a conversation again. Harry is only half listening, nodding along when he feels like he has to. But when he says the word ‘leaving’, Harry perks up, suddenly way more interested. “Who’s leaving?” he asks, panic lacing every word, “Not you guys, right?”

Landon sighs, “Harry, if you were listening, you’d know what I said.”

“Well sorry-”

“I said, I don’t want to freak you out, but it could literally be any day now that we have to leave. But of course, you did freak out because you don’t listen.”

Harry swallows hard and he wants to respond but no words will come out. He doesn’t even think his brain is functioning properly anymore. Any day. Any day and he could lose Louis. For good, maybe. Or maybe temporarily. Either way, Louis will be gone for an unknown period of time and Harry feels like he’s having trouble breathing.

They reach his house, and Harry is thankful that neither his mom nor his dad is home. He doesn’t need them questioning him about anything. He leaves Landon standing on the front steps, slamming the door practically in his face, and marching up the steps to his bedroom. He opens the door and sighs when he’s met with his normal bedroom. There are no blankets on the floor, his furniture is back in place. Louis put it all back to normal the other day. Harry still misses it.

He collapses on his bed, only to find a thick white envelope sitting on his pillow. He picks it up, heart pounding. This is a college letter. The return address says San Diego. Fuck. This is his dream school. And acceptance letter or rejection letter is inside. And he’s opening it alone. Because his boyfriend is doing God knows what God knows where. Great.

His fingers tremble as he opens it, sliding underneath the seal and breaking it as gently as possibly. He’s dragging this out – doesn’t want to really even be doing this – but eventually he opens it all the way and there’s nothing else to do but either pull the letter out or throw it away. And throwing away would be stupid. So he doesn’t do that.

Dear Mr. Styles  
San Diego State University is proud to accept y-

And that’s as far as Harry even needs to read. He clutches the letter in his hands, rereading the word ‘accepted’ over and over and over until it stops sounding like a real word. He can’t help but remember that first day that he and Louis met – when Harry was being ridiculous and avoiding him, acting as if he was dangerous. When he saw the paper through Harry's application folder and told him what a great school it is. He wishes Louis were here with him right now. He wishes things weren’t so complicated. And, what makes him feel absolutely awful about himself, he wishes Louis was human.

\- - -

There have been so many moments since Harry met Louis that he’s wondered to himself, what are you doing? But all of those moments could never compete with this one, this ‘it’s-two-in-the-morning-whatthefuckishappening’ moment. Because he’s been woken up by someone stumbling around in his bedroom, knocking into his desk and sending a textbook and a pack of pencils to the floor – at least, that’s what it sounds like. Harry is frozen, partially in fear and partially in confusion. If it’s Louis, why the hell is he stumbling around like that? And if it’s not Louis…well. That one’s self-explanatory, isn’t it.

“Fuck.”

Okay. That’s definitely Louis’s voice. And with that reassurance, Harry rolls over onto his side, finding his boyfriend leaning on his desk, one hand pressed to his side and his features scrunched up in pain. A jolt of anxiety runs through Harry – he’s never seen Louis in pain, never thought he ever would – and he gets up slowly, unsure of how to even approach this situation.

“What the hell happened to you?” he whispers through the dark, sitting on the very edge of the bed. His eyes are glued to Louis’s hand, and even in the dark he can tell that it’s wet with blood. “Louis what the hell-”

“I’m okay,” Louis interrupts, wincing as he stands up straight, “I’ll be fine.”

“You’re bleeding,” Harry snaps, getting up and standing at his boyfriend’s side. He doesn’t hesitate in grabbing Louis’s hand and pulling it away from his side. The room is still too dark, but Harry can tell that the wound is pretty bad. “Y-you need a hospital. Or something. You’re-”

Louis removes his hand from Harry’s grasp and shakes his head. He looks weak and tired and Harry doesn’t like seeing him like this. Angels don’t get tired. They don’t get weak. They don’t just get stabbed and start bleeding, as far as Harry knows. He never learned that in his crash course Angel education.

“I told you, I’m okay,” Louis says softly, nudging Harry with his shoulder, “Or I will be at least. I promise. I don’t need a hospital.”

“How do you…how do you expect me to believe that? You’re hurt – what the hell happened?”

“Adam,” Louis says simply, “He’s not my biggest fan, apparently.”

And Harry can’t help but laugh at his words, at how calm he is over this whole thing. Harry’s heart is still pounding and he knows he isn’t going to stop worrying until he knows for sure that Louis is okay. “Okay well…at least let me clean you up and bandage that? I don’t need you bleeding all over me.”

Harry somehow manages to get Louis into the hallway bathroom without making much noise at all. The last thing he needs right now is for either of his parents waking up and seeing Louis and well. They probably wouldn’t take it very well. Not that he’d blame them. But he doesn’t need them right now. He forces Louis to sit up on the bathroom counter after he washes his hands and he pulls the first aid kit out from underneath the sink. He tugs Louis’s blood-soaked shirt over his head and rolls it up and stuffs it into a plastic garbage bag. “You’re going to have to buy a new one,” he says when Louis pouts. And then he gets a good look at the wound on his side and he can’t help but gasp. “I really think you need a professional looking at this…Maybe my mom can-”

But Louis shakes his head and Harry just trusts him on this. He cleans the cut, which is a few good inches in length and looks pretty deep, in his opinion, and unrolls the bandage that the first aid kit provides him with. “It’s still bleeding…” he says as he starts to wrap it around Louis’s ribs, “We’ll have to change it again in the morning.”

“Sure,” Louis says softly, but Harry can tell he’s just saying it to humor him. “I know you’re worried, but I promise I’m going to be fine by the time you wake up again in the morning. And I’ll explain it all then.”

“I believe you,” Harry mumbles as he finishes, making sure the bandage isn’t too tightly wrapped. However, he thinks that Louis probably wouldn’t care if it was. “I’m just…I don’t know.”

When Harry stands up straight again, Louis wraps his legs around his waist, pulls him closer and says, “I love you,” as he rests his head on Harry’s shoulder.

Harry bites his lip and feels his eyes start to burn. He looks at himself in the mirror, sees how wet his eyes are and he knows he’s on the edge of an emotional breakdown. Landon’s statement that they could be gone any day now torments him, makes him want to just stop and give up and say fuck it and let Louis go now. But the second after that thought passes through his brain, his arms tighten around Louis and he knows he could never do that.

“I love you too,” he whispers back, hugging him as tight as he can without putting any pressure on his wound. “I love you so much.”

\- - -

To add to Harry’s concern, Louis sleeps. He passes out thirty seconds after Harry makes him put on a new shirt and lay down on the bed, and Harry is so upset and concerned that he thinks he might throw up if he doesn’t calm himself down. But he’s got an Angel in his bed, bleeding and fast asleep and those are two things that Angels just don’t do. Especially the sleeping part.

Harry doesn’t sleep. He sits up in his bed, eyes on Louis, watching as his chest rises and falls with each breath he takes. It’s comforting at least to know that he’s still breathing. He wishes he had asked more about this sort of thing – Angel injuries and sleeping and things like that. But now it’s too late. Unless he wants to call up John and ask him about it. But the only thing Harry can really focus on is making sure Louis is okay. He’ll stay up all night if he needs to.

It’s around five in the morning when Harry relaxes a little bit. He sighs as he notices the significant lack of blood on the bandage he put on Louis only an hour ago. An injury that bad should have kept bleeding without stitches, would have bleed right through it. Louis was right when he said he’d be okay. Harry should have known better than to even doubt him in the slightest.

Louis shifts in his sleep (is it even really sleep?) and moves onto his side, exposing his wings to Harry. Harry finds himself smiling, reaching out and touching the feathers at the bottom. They’re smooth and soft and beautiful and Harry will never admit that out loud if anybody was in the room (like Zayn. He’d never let him live it down). And then he moves his eyes up, finding the spot where his wings meet his back. The spot he avoids like the plague. Usually even just the thought of it makes Harry nauseous. But tonight, it doesn’t seem to bother him at all. In fact, it seems almost inviting.

Claiming Louis could solve so many problems, he realizes. He could stay with Harry – be Harry’s forever and Harry would never have to worry about him leaving and going back to Heaven. About being hurt like he was tonight. One touch to that sensitive spot and everything could be okay.

But then Louis moves again, hand slipping underneath Harry’s pillow and his legs stretching out. His foot hits Harry’s shin and the guilt and shame start to settle in. Harry bites his lip and brings his hand back, as far from Louis as possible. Claiming Louis might solve some things and guarantee Louis staying with him, but Harry knows it would never be the same.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah....I’m probably just gonna finish this tonight. If not then tomorrow for sure. 
> 
>  
> 
> I’m sorry. Don’t hate me. This chapter hurt me more than it’s gonna hurt you.

There's snow on the ground when Harry wakes up the next morning. It's half past eight in the morning and he doesn't even remember falling asleep, let alone getting under the covers and cuddling up to Louis, who's awake and playing Temple Run on Harry's cell phone.

"We're missing homeroom," Louis states, still playing the game. "I was going to wake you up, but I figured you didn't get much sleep."

"I wonder why," Harry grumbles, leaning up and shoving at Louis's t-shirt. He pushes the hem up until he exposes the white bandage he applied the night before, over the gash in his side that had been gushing blood and probably should have been looked at by a doctor. But while it should, under normal human circumstances, be soaked through with blood, it isn't, and Harry sighs in relief.

"Told you I would be fine."

"Well when you show up in my bedroom at four in the morning, gushing blood and barely being able to stand on your own, it tends to make people a little bit nervous, asshole."

Louis laughs, sitting up in bed and pulling the shirt up over his head. He makes quick work of taking the bandage off, tossing it into the garbage on the side of Harry's bed and Harry finds himself thinking he's crazy. Because now, there's nothing there. No wound, not even a scar. Just smooth skin that is slightly tinged red with blood from the bandage.

"Are you kidding?" He asks, reaching out and tentatively touching the skin, "You could have told me last night that you have super freakish healing powers, you asshole."

"I should have," Louis agrees, "I guess I was having a bit of trouble focusing."

"Yeah - and you fucking fell asleep. You told me you don't sleep."

"I wasn’t sleeping, exactly. But my 'super freakish healing powers' take a lot of my energy, especially for an injury that bad. Sometimes rest is a necessity."

"You scared me."

Louis nods, clearly already very well aware of that fact. "I know, and I'm sorry for that. I should have gone home, instead of here, but I was having trouble focusing and you were all I could think of," he explains, putting down the cell phone and giving Harry all of his attention. "I hope I haven't scared you away."

"It is literally impossible to scare me away at this point," Harry admits, curling his arm around Louis's waist, being careful despite the fact that he's no longer in any danger. "I still expect an explanation though. So get talking."

Louis laughs and Harry feels it, smiling and feeling much calmer than he did barely a few hours ago. They're missing school in favor of cuddling in bed but Harry thinks that they deserve this.

"Not much to explain... I was careless for a moment and ran into Adam. Well, he ran into me. I was on my way to you and he knew that. He tried to threaten me - told me he knew where you were and he would use you to get to me."

Harry tenses, feels like there's ice running through his veins at this information. He has an Archangel after him. An Archangel who wants to use him to get to his boyfriend. "Please don't do anything stupid, Louis," he finds himself asking, but it sounds a bit more like begging. "Don't sacrifice yourself to keep me safe."

"I would have, Harry. You can't ask me not to. The only reason. I didn't was because I already knew you were safe. You're safe here; I made sure of it."

"I'd be even safer if I was with you all the time," Harry mumbles, tightening his hold around his waist.

"Of course you would," Louis agrees, "but that isn't exactly ideal."

Harry hides his face in Louis’s shoulder, pressing a kiss to his skin and saying, “Of course it’s ideal,” but his words are muffled and even he isn’t really sure what he said, so Louis ignores him in favor of pulling him in closer and pulling the blankets back over them. They’re already missing homeroom; they might as well sleep in. And Harry is fine with that. He sighs and relaxes, fighting to keep his eyes open. His gaze settles on the envelope on his bedside table and his heart drops – he’ll tell Louis about the acceptance letter another time.

\- - -

The snow sticks around for a week. At first, Louis loves it. He thought it was the greatest thing to ever happen to him (aside from Harry, he claimed) and insisted that they go outside and build a snowman. Because that’s what people do when it snows, according to him. But, after fifteen minutes of being out in the cold and the snow still coming down hard, Louis decides enough is enough and declares his hatred.

“It’s sticking to my wings,” he complained and yeah, okay, Harry can totally see how that can be annoying. “I never want to see snow again.” And of course, it has snowed every day since then.

“Stop leaving the house without your jacket!” Harry tries to reason with him that following Saturday, after Louis has once again tried to leave the house in just a t-shirt.

“I was just getting the newspaper,” the Angel says sadly, crossing his arms over his chest as he sits down on Harry’s living room couch. He ruffles his wings, and the snow falls off of them and melts into the couch cushions. Harry will have to make sure his mother never finds out about this.

“You don’t even read the newspaper.”

Louis glares at him, and Harry just shrugs.

He’s home alone today. Well, alone plus Louis. And it’s a relief, because his parents have practically been suffocating him lately. He can’t really complain all that much, considering he’s kind of been forced to stay inside as much as possible because Landon claims that Adam can kidnap him all too easily. Harry is starting to feel like a hostage.

“Can we go somewhere?” Louis asks, pulling a sweatshirt over his head. His wings disappear momentarily as the sweatshirt passes over them, and Harry watches in fascination as they reappear again. Call him lame, but that kind of thing amazes him every time.

“We can’t go anywhere unless you agree to wear a jacket.”

Louis gets this weird look on his face – one that Harry has seen plenty of times before. Most recently when Louis spilled a jar of glitter all over Harry’s laundry. It’s a look of amusement that only Louis can pull off. He leans forward and before Harry can even catch on to what he’s doing, he grabs Harry’s wrist and all Harry sees is white.

Until he lands on black pavement, feet hitting the ground so hard that his ankles protest. He’s quick to grab his head and crouch down, the nausea sweeping over him faster than he can keep up with. He stares at the ground, sees Louis’s sneakers just within his line of sight. “I fucking hate you,” he moans, squeezing his eyes shut as he tries to regain some sense of balance. “You can’t just fucking transport me somewhere without warning me.”

“I didn’t like the snow,” Louis responds simply, and happily, “Maybe I should have warned you but you probably would have just told me no.”

At that, Harry freezes. “Where are we?”

“I’m not sure –”

“You better be fucking sure by the time I stand up.”

“Somewhere in Virginia. It’s warmer here. There’s no snow. And, there’s a zoo.”

Harry sighs, figuring that’s the best explanation he’s probably going to get. He’s come to realize that just because Louis has the power to take them anywhere they want to go, it doesn’t always mean that he knows where they’ve ended up. He shakes his head, makes sure he can see clearly again and stands up straight. Louis is right. There is a zoo.

“Why are we here? Aside from the lack of snow,” he asks as they walk through the parking lot, towards the large sign that reads Virginia Zoological Park and trying not to laugh at the way Louis is practically vibrating from his excitement.

“Because Zayn told me about zoos the other day and I decided I wanted to go to one. And obviously we can’t go when it’s snowing so I brought us here, where it isn’t snowing.”

And that sounds fine to Harry. Because he likes animals and zoos and has no issue with being here with Louis. Aside from that tiny fact that they’re really not supposed to be this far from either of their homes. “Does Landon know we’re here? Or John?”

“Of course,” Louis assures him quickly, “As if I would put you in danger like that.”

He truly sounds offended, so Harry just shakes his head and takes his hand and pays for both of their tickets. Because this is totally a date. An unplanned date, but still. Date.

-

Harry has been to the zoo plenty of times before, but he’s never had quite an experience like this. Louis is like the animal whisperer, literally talking to animals and they seem to actually understand what he’s saying. Louis claims they don’t – that they’re just very calmed by his presence – but Harry is convinced. His boyfriend can talk to animals.

“What’s this one’s name?” He asks, leaning on the railing and pointing at the goat in the petting zoo. The goat just blinks at him. “Looks like a Kevin.”

Louis ignores him (I’ve told you, Harry. I can’t talk to animals!) and walks further along, stopping in front of the last section of the petting zoo. Harry watches him as he leans on the railing, surrounded by other people. It’s not so crowded that Harry is nervous about wandering hands or anything like that. Louis looks so comfortable, just being here and socializing and Harry would hate to see him get pulled away from this – pulled away from Harry. He watches as Louis smiles to himself as a little girl next to him feeds a handful of corn to a bunch of ducks and Harry has to remind himself that it would probably be dumb to proclaim his love for Louis in the middle of a children’s petting zoo.

That’s when things start getting a little weird. Not like, dramatically obvious weird. Just…well. The baby duck seems to really like Louis a lot and while Louis is walking back towards Harry, it somehow manages to sneak its way out underneath the fence and starts tagging along behind the Angel, sticking close to his feet and looking happy as can be.

Louis is oblivious, and when he reaches Harry he folds his arms over his chest and says, “I think we can move on now.”

“I’m not too sure about that,” Harry says, looking down at the duck circling around Louis’s left foot. “You seem to have made a new friend who wants to hang out with you.”

“What are you talking about?” Louis asks, confusion written all over his face, “The only human being I’ve spoken to has been you.”

Harry nods towards his feet, where the duck has now settled into a comfortable looking position on Louis’s sneaker. It’s yellow and fluffy and tiny and Harry almost wants to tell Louis that it can come home with them. But that would probably be considered stealing. Or maybe even kidnapping. “I think it likes you.”

Louis furrows his eyebrows and stares down at it, still clearly incredibly confused. “Why would it like me?”

“Maybe it thinks you’re its mom.”

Weeks ago, Louis would have taken that literally and gone off on a tangent about how smart ducks are and how it can’t possibly think that Louis is its mother and how Louis doesn’t look anything like a duck and God, Harry is glad they’re past that now. Because all Louis does is glare at him, bend down and scoop the duck up in his hands. “I’m putting it back. Then we can go.”

“Good job. You’re a hero to all ducklings everywhere,” Harry teases as he goes, watching the careful way he handles the baby duck and puts it back in its pen. Louis has a bigger heart than anybody else here, and it kind of really sucks that nobody will ever be able to see that if things continue the way they have been. Louis just wants to fit in here. He can’t do that if he’s forced to leave.

\- - -

“Are there aquariums in our town? That’s where I want to go next. And they’re indoors, so it won’t matter if it’s snowing. Or cold. Or raining. Do you think we can go soon? Maybe tomorrow? I want to-”

Louis is rambling (as he seems to do a lot lately) and Harry can’t help but laugh and shake his head and sort of tune him out. Louis seems to have a long list of things he wants to do in a short period of time and Harry hates that – hates that he has to try and fit in as many things as possible before his war is over and he has to go home. It’s sad – for both of them – and Harry hates thinking about it.

“Zayn says he wants to go to Disney World – do you think we should go? I know Liam doesn’t want to but-”

Harry stops him, pulling on his arm and tugging him off the path they were walking on. People pass them by, heading for the exits and Harry just nods, presses himself against Louis and wraps his arms around his waist. “We can go wherever you want. Okay? As long as I don’t miss school too much. I still have colleges to impress, you know.”

Louis tightens his hold on Harry’s waist and he nods and mumbles, “I know you got accepted to San Diego State. I saw the letter.”

Harry says nothing. He figured Louis would find out about it eventually – he was just hoping maybe it would take a little bit longer. They stand there on the side of the walkway, large groups of people pushing past them and leaving the zoo and completely oblivious to the two boys having a heart to heart right there less than a few feet away from them.

“I understand why you didn’t tell me,” Louis continues, “But I’m proud of you. I knew you’d get in. From the first time I saw you with the application.”

“It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you,” Harry tells him, pushing him an arms-length away. “I just…I didn’t think it was a priority. Especially if…”

“If I’m not even going to be here by then. Trust me, Harry. I get it. But believe me – just because you’re going to be in San Diego doesn’t mean I can’t come see you whenever I can.”

“I don’t want you to think that I’ll just be moving on with my life and going to college once you’re gone. Because I’m not going to. I won’t…I love you. And I’m not going to just stop because you’re not around. I don’t know how it’s going to work but…I just. Just know that I love you, alright?”

Louis gives him a sad smile, “You say that like I could ever forget it.”

And the worst part is, Harry knows how easily he really could.

\- - -

A couple of hours later, they’re back home and Louis is busy doing God knows what with John. He said something about talking to some Angel in New York but Harry doesn’t remember exactly. He’s at the library now, trying to pick out some books for a research paper on ocean pollution for his earth science class. He knows that Landon is probably somewhere outside, keeping an eye on him “just in case” but he’ll just ignore that fact and pretend he’s just another normal kid going to the library without a body guard.

He’s in the middle of slipping through one of the books he’s found when he glances up and finds someone staring at him. It’s a guy, leaning up against the book shelves and smirking and Harry glances around, finding himself suddenly alone – aside from the creepy guy watching him. As he finds himself doing quite a bit lately, Harry thinks back to a few months ago, where this totally wouldn’t have happened to him.

“If you’re going to try and kill me, can you just do it already? I’d rather die before I start writing this paper, thanks,” Harry finds himself saying, looking back at his book and taking his eyes off the stranger. Which is probably not a smart move. But whatever.

“You have no idea who I am, do you?” the guy asks, and Harry looks up in time to see him shift, push himself off the shelf and stand up straight. He gets a quick glimpse of black wings, and then they’re gone, but it was enough to tell him exactly what he’s dealing with.

He bites his lip and puts the book back on the shelf. “Well I know what you are. I have no clue who you are though. But I’m sure you don’t really know much about me either so I think we’re even-”

"You're Harry Styles. Trust me, I know all about you. My name's Gabriel. I'm an Archangel."

Gabriel is tall. And thin. And attractive. He has black hair and gorgeous eyes and when he smiles at Harry, Harry feels his heart do this weird flippy floppy thing that can't be healthy. Harry watches as he gestures towards the small table placed at the end of the book aisle, wanting Harry to sit down. But Harry just stares. Because this is a little bit much for him right now.

Harry clears his throat when Gabriel gives him a weird look and decides he should probably say something before this dude thinks he's mentally challenged. "Gabriel. Like..."

"Like the messenger. Sure. Anyway. I've been hearing a lot about you. So I figured I'd drop in and see what you're all about for myself."

Harry isn't sure what to think at this point. Sure, he probably shouldn't be taking this dude seriously and should be calling for Landon and getting out of here. But for some reason, something tells him that this Angel isn't a threat to him. In fact, he feels like he can actually help. So he nods and walks to the end of the aisle and sits down in the chair Gabriel offered him a few moments ago.

"Awesome," Gabriel praises when he sees Harry's submission. "I promise, I'm not going to hurt you."

"I think I believe you," Harry finds himself admitting. "You don't seem like Adam."

Gabriel shrugs, "I don't know about that. He is my brother, after all. We're just... I guess you can say we have very different opinions on how we think the world should function."

"He's an asshole."

"That might be true but he still has the power to kill you in the blink of an eye if I tell him your exact location."

Harry sighs and bites back the rude comment he was going to make next. "Fine. So what exactly are you here for?"

"Like I said, I was originally just here to see what all the fuss was about. I may not have stepped foot in heaven in years but I can still hear what my brothers and sisters are talking about if I want to. And you are their most popular subject."

"Gabriel-"

"Gabe."

Harry sighs again, "Fine. Gabe. Just get to the point."

Gabe doesn't seem too fond of Harry's disrespectful way of talking to him but he shrugs it off. "I've been watching you. Keeping an eye on you, I guess you could say. For about a week now."

Harry should probably find that disturbing - and he definitely would have, if this were said to him months ago - but these days nothing really concerns him anymore. "And? I'm not very interesting."

"Of course you're interesting," Gabe protests, disbelief threaded through every word, "You're the first human who has even bothered trying to help us fit in with your society since we first came here. How is that not interesting?"

Harry blinks. "I don't understand where you're going with this."

Gabe sits down in the chair next to Harry's, pushing aside the books that had been left behind by some other person before them. The library is silent, aside from them. Harry hopes they don't get kicked out. He still needs to write a paper.

"From what I've been able to interpret, you're pretty high on Adam's hit list. All because you managed to take a bunch of Angels and teach them about humanity. Enough to make two of them join it."

“I didn’t do that on purpose. All I did was be nice to them. And I think Zayn was well on his way to falling before I turned up.”

“That might be true, but you’re the only one that knows that. There were hundreds of other Angels trying to live on earth and fit in as your Angels have been doing. That’s a small number compared to how many of us there actually are but it was a decent amount. Now there’s less than that, because they’re all giving up and going home. Because no humans want to give them the time of day because they’re afraid that they’re dangerous. And then there’s you. Harry Styles. The guy who’s actually helping Angels fit in. You’re kind of a big deal, Harry.”

Harry rolls his eyes. “I don’t want to be a big deal. I’m a high school senior who just wants to graduate and go to San Diego and just so happened to fall for an Angel in the process. I have no interest in being a ‘big deal’, okay?”

“I understand,” Gabe says, nodding and looking contemplative, “But I mean, you kind of can’t ignore it. What you’ve done? It’s something to be incredibly proud of. I came here nearly a decade ago and somehow, I managed to blend in and convince people I’m not an Angel. Nobody even knows what I am anymore. But that took years of me laying low and avoiding drama. Louis, on the other hand, has been here less than a year and you’ve already got him interacting with people and doing human things. And Zayn? That’s pretty impressive too.”

“Zayn isn’t an Angel anymore,” Harry points out. “It doesn’t matter. He’s human. He can do what he wants.”

“Pretty sure you’ve still got the entire school thinking he and Liam are Angels. And Zayn is on a baseball team. Actually playing baseball with people who think they could claim him at any time if they make the wrong move. I don’t know about you, Harry, but I call that impressive. You’re pretty awesome, honestly.”

Gabe leans back in his chair, hands behind his head and a smug smile on his face. Harry can’t help it – he kind of is starting to think he’s a little bit impressive now, with the way Gabe put things into perspective. He never meant for any of this to happen – hanging out with Angels, helping them blend in with society – but now that he thinks about it, he did a pretty damn good job.

“If you think I’m awesome and what I’ve done is impressive, then you must want to stop this war, right? To keep them here? And make sure Adam doesn’t hurt them?”

“Well yeah,” Gabe agrees, “But that doesn’t mean that I can.”

Harry’s heart sinks. He thought maybe this guy could be their in – their way out of this. He’s an Archangel. Wouldn’t he be able to have some pull? “But you must be able to do something. Adam would listen to you-”

At that, Gabe laughs and someone on the other side of the book shelves protests with a harsh shhh! and Harry slumps in his chair in defeat. “This is a war between family. Adam isn’t going to listen to anybody. The only one who can stop this is Adam and he’s not going to, Harry. Not until they either give in on their own, or he makes them. And I’ll be honest with you – from what I’ve been hearing, Adam is making sure that the war is going to be ending sooner rather than later.”

Harry realizes that there’s really absolutely nothing he can possibly do at this point. He’s going to lose Louis one way or another – he’s either going to have to go back to heaven willingly, or he’s going to die fighting to stay. And Harry knows his Angel well enough by now to know that there’s no way Louis is giving up on this. Not when he’s come this far.

\- - -

It happens on a Friday in February, one week after Gabe came to visit Harry. Harry is getting ready for school, trying to somehow get his hair to behave itself and Louis appears behind him, staring at Harry through the mirror with wide eyes and a cut on his forehead. Harry stares at his reflection for a moment, knowing without even having to ask that this is the moment he’s been dreading. When he turns around, the cut on his forehead is all but gone and he sighs.

“John left,” Louis says, and it sounds like it hurts him to just say it out loud. “He left with Landon. He wanted me to come too so Adam didn’t…but I couldn’t…”

“Calm down,” Harry soothes, reaching out and pulling him closer, “It’s fine. Just calm down.”

He can feel Louis’s heart pounding in his chest, and it’s the first time he’s ever known Louis to be so upset. Even when he was ‘adjusting’ to human emotions and even that time he showed up in Harry’s room injured and bleeding, he was never this upset. He feels Louis’s fingers grip the back of his shirt. Harry takes a deep breath and lets it go.

“I love you,” he says, his words echoing off the walls in the small bathroom. “I love you so much. Promise me you aren’t going to do anything stupid.”

“I won’t,” is Louis’s response, and Harry thinks he believes him. So he pulls back and cups his face in his hands and kisses him hard, almost pushing him backwards. Louis’s hands struggle to keep their grip on his shirt as he kisses back, and Harry thinks that this will be a good kiss to remember as their last.

“I have to go,” Louis says a minute later, pulling away from Harry completely. “Can you promise me something?”

Harry finds himself smiling. “Of course I can.”

“Promise you won’t forget about me?”

Harry isn’t sure exactly what Louis is doing when he leaves, but he knows either way, it will probably be a long time before Harry sees him again. “Baby there’s literally no possible way for me to ever forget about you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: my boyfriend is stationed in San Diego with I guess is why Harry wants to go to San Diego but that’s where my heart is.


	19. Chapter 19

Three days pass and Harry still hasn't heard anything from Louis. He didn't expect to, considering circumstances, but it's still strange. The past few months, Harry has pretty much spent nearly every second possible with him. Walking to school; eating lunch together; hanging out after class; spending the night. To go from that to having absolutely no contact? Harry can't pretend it's not having an effect.

niall has been pretty understanding, which is nice considering Harry has basically just given up on caring about anything. He tolerates Harry when Harry zones out of conversations and he lets Harry borrow his homework when Harry forgets to do it. He's being pretty supportive and Harry will have to remember that when he finally snaps out of this 'my-life-is-a-disaster' mindset and starts being a functioning human being again. But he kind of doubts that will even happen any time soon.

He's at lunch on the Monday after Louis left and niall is going on to Josh about something to do with football and Harry is picking at a bagel, wondering if maybe it would be less painful for him to throw himself off the Brooklyn Bridge than sit here waiting to hear from his boyfriend.

"So...Have you heard from any schools yet?"

The question comes from Zayn, who looks no better than Harry feels. Harry can't even imagine what must be going through his head. Liam too. Louis is their brother - Angels or not. They must be worried sick.

"A few, yeah," Harry manages to respond as he rips his bagel apart. "San Diego State and Towson and then two in Florida."

Zayn nods and looks over at his boyfriend. "Liam didn't apply anywhere. There's no reason for us to go to college, really." He offers a small smile and Harry slightly returns it.

"So what are you going to do when you graduate?" Harry asks Liam, "Hang around here until Zayn finishes senior year?"

"Probably," Liam agrees, "If only because he's going to want to keep playing baseball."

Zayn smiles much more brightly this time and Harry can't help but feel comforted by it. He's pretty sure they're going to be okay without Louis and John and Landon. Harry wishes he could say the same for himself.

"Harry is leaving us for California," niall interjects, elbowing Harry in the ribs. "How lame."

"I'm not 'leaving' you," Harry tries to protest, "I'll be back for holidays and stuff..."

But even Harry knows that was a pathetic attempt at a lie. He knows that once he gets out of here, he's not coming back unless he absolutely has to. If he has a chance to escape this town that just exists to remind him of Louis, he'll take it. It’s probably selfish, but he thinks it’s justified. To him, at least.

The rest of the day goes by just as slowly as the beginning of it. Since Louis has been gone, his days seem to have been put in slow motion. Every time he looks at his watch, barely minutes have passed and he hopes that it’s not a thing that will stick around for long.

When he walks in his front door after a lonely walk home from the school, Harry drops his bag by the couch and starts the trip up the steps to his room, but his mom walks in from the kitchen and stops him, saying his name and pairing it with a small smile.

“I bought ice cream at the store if you want some,” she offers when he turns around reluctantly. “Come on, Harry. We can start looking through all the papers San Diego State sent.”

Harry shakes his head, “No thanks. I’m going to take a nap before dinner,” he lies, knowing he probably won’t even come down for dinner. “Maybe tomorrow.”

“Harry. This is getting ridiculous. I know you’re upset but-”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” She says, crossing her arms, “And I understand. I know Louis meant a lot to you. I don’t know what happened, but obviously you haven’t heard from him in a while-”

“I haven’t,” Harry agrees, “But I don’t really want to talk about it. I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Louis wouldn’t want you moping around like this, Harry!” she calls after him, but he ignores her and takes the steps two at a time. That was a pretty low blow, saying that about Louis.

Harry knows that she’s right, and he falls onto his bed face first and fights back the tears stinging his eyes. Louis would not like the way he’s been acting – as if his life sucks and there’s nothing worth living for. While in his opinion, that’s a totally accurate view on the situation, Louis would fully disagree and tell Harry that he’s being ridiculous. In fact, when he comes back – if he comes back – he’ll definitely have something to say about it. Because no doubt he’s checking in on Harry any chance he gets. Harry’s not even going to acknowledge the chance that Louis might not even be alive, and his plant that would tell him so is sitting in his closet and he’s too afraid to check on it. So. Totally ignoring it. For the most part.

He gets up from his bed reluctantly, knowing that he might as well just get this over with now, and heads for his desk. In the center of the desk is one of the few things Harry has left of Louis. Louis’s tiny yet thriving aquarium has been left in Harry’s care for the time being. He never mentioned it to Harry. Harry just woke up the morning after Louis left to the small tank sitting on his desk and the can of fish food sitting next to it. Harry half laughed and half cried after reading the sticky note on the glass that said ‘I trust you to be a good fish caretaker and give them one hour of sunlight daily.’ He blames the partial emotional breakdown on the restless sleep he got the night before, plagued by nightmares about Louis. So Harry glances at it briefly, notes that both fish are still swimming happily, and pulls the middle drawer open to grab the folder of papers he was sent in the mail last week for school next fall.

His mom is, of course, surprised by his appearance in the kitchen twenty minutes after he told her he wasn’t doing this. But she gathers her composure quickly and clasps her hands together and exclaims that she’s going to go and get her reading glasses. Harry sits down at the table and spreads the papers out in front of him. Doing this will just bring him one step closer to getting out of here.

\- - -

The weather gets warmer as the weeks start passing more quickly. Harry’s glad time has started to pick up a bit – he was getting sick of the days dragging on and feeling as if they’d be stuck in winter forever. The warmer it gets, the closer he is to graduating. And once April hits, Harry knows he’s in the home stretch.

Now that months have passed, Harry’s hope in Louis coming around has diminished. The first few days, every time he heard even the faintest sound of fluttering wings or anything remotely similar, he couldn’t turn around fast enough to investigate. Now, he barely even glances up. He feels like he’s giving up – but what more can he do?

And of course, when he gives up, that’s exactly when Louis decides to come home.

He arrives in the middle of Harry’s messy bedroom at nearly ten at night on a Tuesday in April. He lands in a pile of sweaters that Harry tossed from his dresser drawers only a few hours ago in an attempt to find something to wear to his aunt’s birthday party this upcoming weekend. The way Louis tumbles to the floor into the mess of clothes tells Harry he went and did exactly what he totally hoped he didn’t. Something stupid. His heart pounds in his chest as he watches Louis tangle himself in sweater sleeves and struggle to get free.

Neither of them says anything. Harry watches from his bed, struggling to decide between getting up and helping him or just continuing to watch him flail. His body seems to make the decision for him, because it just stays frozen in shock.

Louis speaks first, finally giving up on his struggle with the sweaters. “Are these clean?” he asks as he lifts up the sleeve of a dark blue one, his nose scrunched in anticipated disgust. Harry is glad he’s finally taken to worrying about hygiene and cleanliness.

“Yes,” Harry assures him, laughing as his body finally decides to unfreeze, pushing himself off the bed and falling to kneel beside Louis. “They’re clean. Is that your only concern?”

Louis’s eyes travel the room and his hands shake and Harry knows that’s not really something that an Angel does. He finally sighs and says, “The fish tank is incredibly dirty, Harry. But otherwise…yes. That’s my only concern.”

“It’s been two months. You realize that?”

Louis huffs, brushing himself off and pushing away some of the sweaters surrounding him. “Has it been? Felt like years to me,” he says simply, glancing up at Harry. “Didn’t mean to keep you waiting this long. Apparently, in order to fall these days you actually have to provide a detailed reason why.”

“Fuck, Louis. Are you kidding me right now?”

“I am confused as to what you’re so upset about,” Louis sighs, tugging at the collar of his t-shirt. “Is it hot in here? It feels hot in here. I think it does. I can’t really tell?”

Harry wants to punch Louis, or something equally as painful because this fucking asshole is sitting here complaining about the temperature because he’s not a fucking Angel anymore. He wants to tell him how stupid he is and what a stupid decision that was and just. Fuck. This is all his fault.

“I’m opening a window,” Louis decides before Harry can get a word out. He stands up from the floor and kicks his way through all the piles of clothes until he gets to the window. He’s shaky on his feet but he gets there okay and manages to get the lock open. However, he struggles with pulling the window open and that’s something Harry never thought he’d witness.

“It’s not quite as easy as I’m used to,” Louis says, struggling to catch his breath when he finally cracks the window open a few inches. “I’ll get used to it.”

Harry can’t keep it in anymore. “You are so stupid.”

Louis blinks. “I am?”

“Yes. You fucking are. Because you left me for two months and I’ve been here thinking that you’re fighting for your dumb war and for what you believe in and all this time you’ve just been proving that you have enough of a reason to fall?” Louis laughs. A real, amused laugh and Harry frowns. “You think this is funny?” Harry spits as Louis sits down beside him on the floor – this time free of any sweater restraints. “I was practically having a midlife crisis and –”

Louis kisses him. Takes his face in both of his hands and kisses him. It’s rough and harsh and nothing like the kisses they’ve ever shared before. It’s unplanned and not thought out and completely instinctual and Harry can’t help but sigh into it and let his argument die before it even gets started. Clearly Louis has other things in mind than arguing over his stupid decisions.

This time, both of them end up in the pile of sweaters, Louis on top of Harry with his hands gripping tight to his t-shirt. Their faces are inches apart, their lips practically touching, but not quite kissing anymore. Louis has his eyes closed when he says, “You think my decision was stupid. That I was supposed to be fighting for something I believed in.”

“That’s about right, yeah,” Harry says, his voice barely above a whisper. His hand is on the small of Louis’s back, but it doesn’t dare go up any higher. He knows that technically he can go up higher now. But it feels wrong to even think about it. “You shouldn’t have given everything up. You could have kept fighting.”

“You’re wrong. I did fight for what I believed in. And I got it. I fought for you.” Louis rolls over onto his side, pressing himself up against Harry, not even caring, apparently, that they’re still being smothered by sweaters. “I knew for a long time that I’d end up here. That when the time came, I’d give myself up and ask for permission to fall, ever since Liam did it. It was a lot more difficult for me, considering how badly Adam just wanted to kill me and move on. But I fought for it. And here I am. Better late than never, I suppose?”

Harry is having a bit of trouble wrapping his head around this, and all he can ask is, “And how exactly did you convince that jackass to let you fall?”

“It wasn’t easy,” Louis says, “Of course the second he saw me he wanted to kill me. But thankfully he’s not as bad as he seems and decided to hear me out.”

Instantly, Harry tightens his grip on Louis’s waist. “How fuckin’ generous of him.”

“I thought so too,” Louis agrees, missing the sarcasm as always, “And he asked me why I would want to fall and be human instead of coming back home and being everything I was before. And I won’t lie; I have thought about just going home. Numerous times. But it has never seemed as appealing as just being here and living with you.”

“How romantic,” Harry mumbles, blushing as Louis grins and kisses him. “I bet he just loved hearing that.”

“Well I did tell him that. And about how much you meant to me and that being with you was more appealing than anything else. And he didn’t believe me at first – Adam is not quite a romantic - so I had to prove how much you meant to me.”

“I’m kind of afraid to hear how you did that…”

“Showed him my memories. Especially our intimate ones.”

“Of course you did. Because why not let everyone know just what we do behind doors, huh?”

Sarcasm missed again, Louis just grins. “And that took a long time so that’s why I’m here so late. But here I am.” And then his face falls, as if he remembers something particularly unpleasant.

Harry sighs. “What?”

“Well…Adam said something about this possibly being a waste because there was of course the chance that you wouldn’t really want me the same way anymore and that you wouldn’t be very pleased to hear what I did and that you’d be stuck with me and well…you aren’t pleased with me so I can only assume –”

Harry almost hits himself in the forehead. There is no possible way for him to catch a break these days. “Do you seriously think that I don’t still want you? That I don’t still love you the same way I did when you left?”

Louis blushes and plays with the hem of Harry’s t-shirt. “I don’t know.”

“Well I do. Sure, I wasn’t exactly happy to hear that you fell, but once you explained yourself…I’m glad you did. Because now we can be together and not have to worry so much. Right?”

Louis nods eagerly, “Right. And all we have to do, in return for allowing me to fall, is go to San Diego and not tell anyone that I used to be an Angel. Adam doesn’t want any other Angels getting any ‘bright ideas’, as he put it.”

And Harry thinks that he can learn to accept that. Sure, he was totally into the whole ‘helping Angels integrate into society’ thing but if it would cost him Louis, then there’s no way he’s going to risk it.

“That’s fine by me. We’ll move there in August and start over and everything will be fine. Hopefully by then, you’ll be completely human and over all the…minor complications that come with falling, right?”

Louis curls in on himself and squeezes his fingers around Harry’s hip. “I’m nervous about it. I don’t look forward to it. But, I know it will be worth it in the end.”

“Well I’ll help you through it,” Harry promises, lips brushing against his hair, “And Liam and Zayn can offer advice.”

“They’re still living in the same house, right?”

“Yeah. Have you heard anything from John or Landon?”

“They’re fine,” Louis assures him, “They went back. They probably won’t be visiting any time soon, though.”

“Didn’t think they would.”

Harry’s lying in a pile of sweaters and has a fallen Angel attached to his side and somehow, he finds this completely normal. He listens to Louis breathing next to him, knowing that these next few days and weeks are going to be a challenge for the both of them, considering Louis will basically be forming an immune system and adjusting to being human and Harry will have to figure out how to help him cope with that. But he finds himself okay with that. Because Louis is here and he can finally take that plant out of his closet because it won’t matter if it’s dead or alive anymore. Louis is right here, where he belongs.

\- - -

Multiple raised red scars are all Harry has to remember Louis’s wings by now. It kind of sucks, he’ll admit. He had a thing for his wings. But he thinks that if he has to pick between wings and Louis’s life, he’ll take the latter.

“Scars are ugly,” Louis declares, looking at himself in Harry’s bathroom mirror. He’s twisted around to get a good view and he’s frowning in disgust. “Do they go away?”

Harry hates lying to him, so he doesn’t. He shakes his head and runs his fingers over the raised lines. “Some do, but not these ones. These are pretty nasty.”

“That’s disappointing,” Louis sighs, face falling. Harry knows this whole thing is really hurting him – the whole ‘losing his Angel abilities’ bullshit. But it’ll be over soon (he hopes) and they can put this all behind them and go to San Diego and start over. Together.

“No big deal. I still think you’re sexy,” Harry assures him, putting his toothbrush back on the shelf of the medicine cabinet. He has fifteen minutes to get to school but he’s not really in a rush these days. He rolls out of bed a half hour later than he used to, tangled up with Louis and contemplating just staying in bed all day. He’s going to be late (for the fifth time in the past two weeks) but he’s a senior. He’s already been accepted to college. Nothing really matters anymore, does it? Besides, he hardly thinks those late days should be held against him. He was busy counseling Louis through the flu.

“You better start walking or you’ll be really late,” Louis warns him as they make their way out of the bathroom and past Harry’s parent’s bedroom. They’re both at work, still completely unaware of the fact that their son has sleepovers with his boyfriend every other night. These days, it’s a lot harder to get Louis out of the house unnoticed. But luckily, Harry’s parents don’t really make a habit of checking in on their son before leaving for work.

“I’m already going to be slightly late – what’s so bad about being really late?”

“Just because you claim your schoolwork doesn’t matter anymore doesn’t mean you can completely slack off.”

“Says the dude who dropped out of school,” Harry teases, elbowing his boyfriend before pulling his backpack over his shoulders. Louis glares at him, which only makes Harry laugh. “Okay, okay. So school is still a touchy subject for you. Who knew?”

“I wish I could still attend school, but I missed two months of it and it would be ridiculous to think I could just assume the daily schedule again and be able to keep up with the work. Plus, there are only two weeks until graduation. It would be rather pointless.”

So Harry leaves Louis in front of his house, starting the walk to school while Louis walks to his home. He feels bad that Louis is going to be alone all day, but he knows his boyfriend will be spending his time alone researching San Diego and the dorms at the school and off-campus housing. He’s really into the whole ‘move to the other side of the country’ thing, which is nice because it means less work for Harry. If he could convince Louis to do all of his homework for him? Life would be a million times easier. But for some reason, Louis is really hanging on to that whole ‘I used to be an Angel I should have morals’ thing, and that’s totally inconvenient.

“Harry! Wait!” Harry is halfway up his block when Louis calls out for him and before he even turns around, he can hear the other boy walking (running) towards him. Louis almost runs right into him, barely stopping in time and steadying himself by putting his hands on Harry’s shoulders. “Harry,” he pants, looking too concerned for this early in the morning. “What street do I turn left on again?”

“Foxdale.”

“Oh,” Louis nods, “Right. I knew that. I just had to double check. This whole ‘directions’ thing is really giving me trouble. But I’ll get it!”

“I’m sure you will,” Harry nods, reaching out and patting Louis on the shoulder, “Soon enough you won’t even need to think twice about directions.” And that’s a total lie. Because Louis will probably never get the hang of directions. “Call me if you get lost. But I’m sure you won’t.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later?”

Harry kisses him and sends him back on his way, knowing that in less than five minutes, he’s going to get a phone call asking what block he’s supposed to turn left at. Human Louis will probably never be able to grasp the concept of directions. Which is fine. He’s just going to have an incredibly clueless non-Angel on his hands in San Diego. Not challenging at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more then the epilogue


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last one then the epilogue!!

The day Harry graduates, it’s rainy and windy and a little too cold to be June. To top it all off, Louis has a cold. And usually, when normal individuals catch a cold, they force themselves to get through their day and go about their normal routine, maybe going to the doctor to get meds or something. But Louis is one of those complainers. He sits and mopes and every time he sneezes, he sighs and glares at the floor like someone just took away his ice cream. And while sometimes (most of the time) it’s adorable, right now Harry could kick him.

“You’re telling me I got this illness because I went swimming? An activity that you forced me to do?” Louis glares at Harry, crumpling up the papers he was holding. Harry hopes they weren’t important. “So this…this inconvenience is all your fault.”

“Yes,” Harry agrees, nodding as he fumbles with his belt, “Blame me for your shit immune system.”

Sure, Louis wasn’t very keen on going swimming, that much is true. But really, it was almost eighty degrees out and there was a pool and what the hell else were they supposed to do at a beach club? Harry thought it was a little too early to introduce Louis to sun-bathing, and he wasn’t about to just sit around under an umbrella while Niall and his newest love interest went frolicking down to the beach to be ‘alone’. So he forced Louis to go the beach club’s in-ground pool and he learned a key trait about Louis that he never knew before. Apparently, Angels are terrified of water.

It was pretty weird, seeing Louis cowering on the steps on the pool, refusing to even dip his toe in the water. Mostly, it was just amusing.

“Babe, it’s water. It’s not evil. It isn’t going to kill you!” Harry had told him, trying to pull him into the pool. But Louis, when he has his mind set on something, is almost impossible to convince otherwise. Almost. “Jesus walked on water, Louis. Nothing bad happened to him!”

“Are you stupid enough to even try and tell me that nothing bad happened to Jesus? Harry, if you recall-”

“Just get in the fucking water. You don’t have wings. There are no wings for you to get wet. So come on.”

Louis did get in after an hour of Harry giving him reasons why water is not evil. And now, Harry totally regrets it. Because now Louis has a cold (probably thanks to being in the pool and his weak immune system) and he’s going to be whiny all day. At least Harry doesn’t have to sit with him during graduation. His parents and Zayn do.

“Eat a cough drop and calm yourself down,” Harry advises, adjusting the collar of his shirt as he hears Louis coughing behind him. “They’re in the top drawer of my desk.”

Louis sighs and pulls the drawer out, rifling through it and making a scene of finding the bag of Halls cough drops. “I hate these things. They give me cavities.”

“I’m sure you’re being overdramatic.”

“No. I can feel them forming every time I eat one. I’m not kidding!”

And Harry knows he totally isn’t. Because Louis is dramatic and a bit of a health nut and Harry has no idea where he got that from, because Harry isn’t exactly the most health conscious person. But he figures it must have stemmed from when Harry caught Louis watching Oprah and Doctor Oz when he came home from school that one time.

“Whatever. Brush your teeth after you eat it. But make it fast or else my mom will flip out if we’re late.”

When Harry turns away from the mirror, satisfied with the way he looks, he finds Louis sitting on his bed, bag of cough drops in hand and his eyes glued to Harry. He makes an event out of trailing his eyes up and down Harry’s body and Harry feels partially violated and partially turned on because this is totally not like Louis. “Babe. You’re practically taking my clothes off with your eyes.”

He tilts his head, “That’s not possible. I’m not an Angel anymore.”

The fact that if this was two months ago and Louis still had all his freaky powers he had when he was an Angel, he could totally ‘undress him with his eyes’ is a little bit unsettling to Harry. “I just meant – forget it. Let’s go downstairs before my mom comes and gets us herself.”

As if it dawns on Louis suddenly, he sits up straighter and grins knowingly at Harry and says, “Oh. You meant I was looking at you in a seductive manner?”

“Please don’t say seductive.”

“Suggestive?”

“Yes. Use that word.”

“Well I was thinking about how great your ass looked in those pants but I didn’t quite know how to express that in the proper words without you laughing at me. So, I’ll just use the terms that you always seem to use. Your ass looks great in those pants, Harry.”

Harry feels his cheeks heat up at Louis’s words and the fact that his eyes go right back to his ass. Sure, it’s flattering that Louis was totally shamelessly checking him out but seriously – hearing those words out of his mouth is definitely a little strange, considering he’s probably only ever said the word ‘ass’ twice and definitely not the way he just did.

“Well…thanks. I uh. Appreciate your appreciation of my ass.”

Louis grins. “Now you sound like me.” He gets up to stand beside Harry and smiles up at him. “I guess while your mannerisms are rubbing off on me, mine are also rubbing off on you.”

“Never a bad thing.” And Harry leans down and kisses him just to show him how okay with it he really is.

\- - -

Harry falls asleep during the ceremony. There are only so many names you can sit through without giving up and letting your mind wander. The kid next to him elbows him awake during the closing speech, thankfully, so he doesn’t have to be embarrassed when the entire class stands up and he’s still sitting because he’s passed out from boredom.

He doesn’t pay attention to the closing speech either. He sees Niall a few rows away to the right, texting from his phone while trying to seem inconspicuous and he tries to look for Liam as well, but he can’t see him. He want to look around but if he turns around, he’ll probably see the giant hot pink banner that says ‘Congratulations Harry & Liam!’ hanging over the railings of the bleachers where the families are sitting. He knows Louis had everything to do with that. The worst part is, he probably has no idea how embarrassing it really is.

By the time the ceremony is over and Harry is standing up again, his legs are stiff and he feels like his ass fell asleep from sitting for so long. When he follows the procession out and back into the halls, he keeps his head down so he doesn’t have to see that hideous pink sign as he passes by. However, thanks to the stupid banner, he has no problem finding Louis and his family outside in the mass of people. So, that’s one good thing, he guesses.

Louis squeezes him tight as soon as Harry gets close enough. His skinny arms practically crush Harry and Harry squeezes him back, hands placed in the exact spot where his wings used to be. It’s a habit Harry’s picked up lately. He hasn’t decided if it’s a good or bad one yet.

“I’m so proud of you and Liam,” Louis says once they separate, grinning ear to ear and picking up the banner he had previously dropped to the ground. “Did you see my sign?”

“Oh, I saw it. How could I miss it?” Harry smiles, as best as he can, because he doesn’t want to hurt Louis’s feelings. “It was nice. Nice and uh, bright.”

Louis is still grinning, but there’s something off about it, especially the way his shoulders are shaking and the way Zayn is hovering behind him, looking like he’s trying not to laugh. It clicks together a little later than Harry will admit. “Wait...did you make this hot pink on purpose?” he asks, narrowing his eyes at his boyfriend. His mom is standing a few feet to his right, sighing at his overdramatic-ness. “You totally did!”

“The goal was to embarrass you, yes,” Louis agrees quickly, holding part of the sign up in front of his face. “And it did!” He sounds so cheerful and proud of himself that Harry almost can’t be mad at him. Almost.

“Louis! I can’t believe you!” Of course, it’s hard to stay mad at an ex-Angel who is finally acting like a normal human being and isn’t as innocent as he used to be. In fact, his anger turns into pride pretty quickly. “Did you think of this on your own?”

Louis is quick to nod, “And Zayn helped me make it. He said you’d be embarrassed. I didn’t want to embarrass you too much but I thought this would be okay.”

Harry wraps his arm around Louis’s shoulder, “And there I was, thinking you worked so hard on it and thought I would love it and I pretended it was great because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. I need to keep an eye on you. You’re sneakier than I realized.”

“Harry, enough,” his mother interrupts, tugging on his arm. “Leave poor Louis alone and let’s take some pictures.”

Harry’s mother thinks Louis is a saint – he can ‘do no wrong’. Harry didn’t really disagree with her. Until now. He keeps his arm tight around Louis’s waist for pictures, smiling for every single one so his mother doesn’t throw a fit and complain that there aren’t any good ones to send to relatives. Harry’s pretty positive she shouldn’t send pictures of her son with his boyfriend to relatives who have no idea Harry is even gay, but he won’t tell her that.

“Are you mad at me?” Louis asks as they’re walking back to the car. He looks nervous, like he’s realized that maybe the hot pink banner was a little much. “I told Zayn maybe we shouldn’t-”

“Louis, I’m not mad,” Harry laughs, lacing their fingers together as they walk. His parents are in front of him, arguing over where to go for dinner and Liam and Zayn are trailing along to the left, talking quietly to each other. “It was pretty funny. I just wasn’t expecting it from you. Who knew that you’d catch on to embarrassing people without any prompting from me?”

“Well Zayn had a lot to do with it,” Louis admits, “He claimed that I really needed to ‘stop acting like I’m ten and be an asshole’. But I’m glad you’re not upset with me. That would have been upsetting for me. And then we both would have been upset. Which would be sad.”

Harry sighs, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this…But I think no matter what you do and no matter how much you embarrass me, I could never really be upset with you. At least not for longer than an hour.”

“Well, I could never really be upset with you either, you know. Considering all you’ve done for me,” Louis says, bumping Harry with his shoulder. “I think losing my wings was well worth getting a human lifetime with you.”

\- - -

Louis’s desire for sex comes out of left field for Harry. They’re in Harry’s bedroom after coming home from dinner, watching Twilight because Louis insisted, and suddenly Louis is sneaking his hand into Harry’s sweatpants and Harry is lost.

Sure, they’ve done sexual things plenty of times before, but Harry has always denied Louis of sex, mainly because of his wings and the claiming thing. But once he fell, there was always something else in the way, like his weak immune system. But now apparently Louis wants it and Harry is on the fence about it because. Well. He’s not really sure why.

“Slow down, Louis. You’re gonna rip my dick off.” he tries to reason, hands gripping Louis’s wrist and pulling his hand out of his sweats.

Louis just laughs at him. He presses his body right up against Harry’s and starts pressing small kisses along his jawline, starting by his ear and getting closer and closer to his lips. While he was completely innocent and unaware of even how to kiss someone when Harry first met him, now he’s the exact opposite and Harry thinks he’s got a cockslut on his hands. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, he acknowledges.

“Please?” Louis begs, and his voice is rough and sexy and so not Louis that Harry can feel himself getting hard in his sweatpants. “Please Harry? I’m not even sick anymore.” And that’s true – he doesn’t sound nearly as bad as he did this morning, probably thanks to all the cough drops he ate during the graduation ceremony. “Give me one good reason to say no to me, and I’ll stop.”

Harry could probably come up with a hundred reasons why they shouldn’t have sex tonight. But none of them would be very good and Louis will wave away every single one of them. And besides…he could come up with a hundred more reasons why they should. Harry’s been waiting for this – denying himself of it since before Louis even fell. It’s perfectly safe now. So why shouldn’t they?

“Just…just make sure we’re quiet,” he finally gives in, maneuvering his body so he’s pressing Louis onto his back. “My parents are still watching TV.”

\- - -

Turns out, Louis talks a big game but the second Harry gets him down to his boxers, he clams up and forces Harry to take the lead on this. Harry’s not bothered by it – he thinks it’s pretty adorable, really – and he kind of figured that this was how it was going to go. Louis is still inexperienced when it comes to this.

“It’s gonna hurt,” he warns him, knees on either side of his hips as he leans over him. He reaches between the bed and the wall, searching for the lube he stashed there the last time they did anything together and Louis just sighs and nods in understanding.

“Zayn already told me that,” he says, biting his lip, “I can handle it.”

For what feels like the millionth time in their entire relationship, Harry groans and pleads, “Do not say Zayn’s name when I’m naked and –”

“Oh. Right. No talking about my siblings during sex. Got it. And also no saying the word ‘seductive’. Is that all?”

Louis is teasing him, barely containing his smile as he looks up at Harry. Harry finally finds the lube and pulls it from between the wall and the bed with a successful fuck yes and forgets all about Zayn and Louis’s use of the word seductive. He sits back on Louis’s thighs, putting the lube on the pillow next to them. His fingers trail down Louis’s sides slowly, reaching the waistband of his boxer-briefs. He moves back enough to slide them over his hips and down his legs, revealing his hard length and making Louis blush.

“I’ve seen you naked plenty of times before this,” Harry reminds him, tossing the boxers to the floor. “Don’t get all shy on me now.”

Harry forces him to flip over onto his stomach. Louis groans and complains about it (but I want to see you!) but Harry just reminds him that stretching him this way will be easier. He also tells him that fucking him like this would be less painful, but Louis doesn’t seem to care. So Harry just sighs and sits back pushes Louis’s legs apart gently, being sure to move slowly.

“We’ve done this much before,” Louis reminds him, head resting in his arms on the pillow. “I’m not a total virgin.”

“Coulda fooled me,” Harry mumbles, popping the cap of the lube and pouring some out onto his fingers. He hears Louis huff in annoyance and mumble “you’re a Virgin too dumbass” and he laughs to himself at his bratty little ex-Angel. He takes the time to rub his hands together so the lube isn’t so cold (Louis complained last time because, as previously stated, he’s a brat) and then he moves himself so he’s lying beside his boyfriend, face to face and one leg between his thighs. “Ready?”

Louis nods and hums in confirmation, pecking Harry on the lips.

Fingering Louis is one of Harry’s favorite things – and that sounds really, really sleazy but he can’t even lie because the sounds Louis makes every time Harry’s fingers hit his prostate should be illegal and the way his back arches and the way he pushes back on Harry’s fingers is equally as intoxicating. A little more than fifteen minutes later and Harry has three fingers inside him and his dick is pressed against Louis’s thigh, hard and waiting to be touched. He’s wondering if maybe Louis can take a fourth when Louis bites down on his lower lip and tugs, making Harry moan in response. He realizes that maybe he should get this show on the road before Louis orgasms just from Harry’s fingers before they even get to the good part.

As expected, Louis whines in protest when Harry eases his fingers out, but he ignores him. He sits up again and straddles Louis’s hips, lips pressing along his left shoulder blade and moving consistently inwards towards the top of his spine. His back is damp with sweat and he’s squirming underneath Harry’s touch. But Harry keeps going, until he gets to the small tattoo on his right. He feels Louis shiver as his lips touch it, beginning at the stem of the feather until he reaches the tip of it. It barely covers more than two inches of skin but Harry knows that it means more to Louis than almost anything else that he’s done since becoming human. It’s just one small reminder of everything he used to be.

Louis whines his name, snapping Harry out of a daze and bringing him back to focus on what he’s supposed to be doing. He mumbles a quick apology, nipping at Louis’s ear before helping him turn over onto his back again. Louis sighs and stretches his legs out, allowing Harry to slip between them easily. He grins when he catches Harry’s eye. “Have fun?” he asks sarcastically, reaching up to let his arms wrap around his neck.

Harry knows there’s no turning back now – not that he even wants to – and no more stalling and no more hesitating. He smiles and lifts Louis’s hips enough to let him wrap one leg around his waist. The thought of using a condom occurs to him suddenly, and he wonders if he should get up and start digging through his desk to find one (if he even has one). “I don’t…Condom?” is all he manages to say when he opens his mouth. Louis just shrugs.

“You’re clean. And God knows I’m clean.”

Harry takes a deep breath, lines himself up, and pushes into louis’ body as slowly as he possibly can get away with.

Louis inhales sharply at the first press inside and Harry instantly feels bad for hurting him. But he knows that it’s better if they don’t stop and just get this part out of the way. Louis holds him tightly, fingers digging into his shoulders and the heel of his foot digging into the spot right above his ass and Harry kisses him just to try and act as a distraction. By the time he’s all the way in, Harry’s pretty certain he’s got permanent marks where Louis’s nails have dug into his skin.

“Fuckin-” Louis pulls away from the kiss and lets out the breath he’d been holding, tilting his head back as he does. “Fuck.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry mumbles against his skin, but Louis shakes his head.

“Doesn’t hurt that much. Feels weird.”

Harry stays completely still for a few moments, despite the fact that all he wants to do is start fucking Louis because he’s fucking tight and it’s almost driving him nuts staying still like this. But finally, Louis says something along the lines of okay okay go and Harry goes, pulling out half way and thrusting back in a little rougher than he would have liked, but he’ll let Louis decide if he’s going too hard or not.

“F-fuck, Harry,” Louis stutters, arching his back every time Harry’s hips meet his own. The amount of profanity he has been using in the past hour has increased significantly and Harry can’t wait to call him out on it later.

It’s nothing like Harry expected it to be, but so much better. Louis clings to him and while it should be uncomfortable, it only makes Harry feel more connected to him. He cries out Harry’s name every time he hits his prostate, pairing it with harder or right there or some variation of a curse word and eventually, Harry has to kiss him again to get him to shut up so his parents don’t catch on to what’s going on up here. That would not only be embarrassing but mortifying and horrifying and disturbing and so many other things and Harry would just like to avoid that.

Louis comes first, jerking himself off and biting down on Harry’s lip as he orgasms and his release gets all over his chest and Harry’s and it’s messy but Harry can’t even think about that now because Louis has somehow gotten even tighter around him and he comes too, hips stuttering and losing rhythm. He finally stills, rests his forehead against Louis’s and lets out a breathless laugh before pulling out and moving to lay down on the bed.

“Fuck,” Louis pants, arm covering his eyes. “That-”

“Was awesome? I’d agree,” Harry nods, leaning over the side of the bed and grabbing the first piece of fabric his hand touches. Turns out to be one of his hoodies, but he uses it to wipe Louis’s come off of them and then tossing it back to the floor. “I regret waiting so long to do that now.”

“Good thing you don’t have to dorm on campus in San Diego,” Louis tells him, reaching down and pulling the sheet up over them. “No roommates to worry about. Oh, and no parents.”

“Just you and me in a one bedroom apartment that we can barely afford. Doesn’t sound too bad.”

“We’re getting jobs,” Louis points out, “And your parents said they’d pay for the first year. So I think we’ll be fine. And when John and Landon show up, I can ask them for help.”

Harry rolls his eyes, “I will never understand where Angels get money.”

To add to Harry’s suspicions, Louis just shrugs. “Don’t worry about it.”

A year ago, Harry wouldn’t have pictured himself here. Not in bed with Louis and planning their future in San Diego together. If anything, he would have pictured himself out with Niall and Josh, celebrating graduation with alcohol and stupid decisions. It’s true, he does miss that life sometimes but he knows what he has now is so much better. He wouldn’t trade it for anything.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue. Enjoy.

In his junior year of college, Harry didn’t really expect his apartment to become an animal rescue zone. But apparently, that’s exactly what it is. When he locked the door behind him earlier that morning before leaving for his psychology class, there were two skinny, undernourished cats sitting on the arm of the expensive leather couch he had saved for so long to buy. There was a German Shepherd in his bathroom drinking out of the toilet bowl and a small Chihuahua-mix chewing on one of his shoes in the kitchen. And, to top it all off, in the guest bedroom there was a large fifteen gallon glass tank filled with four dwarf hamsters that apparently are not as nocturnal as experts claim them to be. But that was so normal for Harry that he didn’t even give anything a second glance.

But now it’s three in the afternoon and Harry is pinned against his own front door by a very large and very angry looking dog. There’s about a foot of space between them and the dog is growling at Harry and its nails are digging into the hardwood floor and Harry is cringing at the amount of drool coming out of it because those floors were just mopped yesterday for God’s sake. The saddest thing is, this happens to him way too often to be out completely of the ordinary.

If Harry has to guess, he would say that the dog is a Bull Mastiff mixed with something else and he knows for a fact that despite how large this dog already is, it’s not even fully grown yet. He moves slowly, dropping his bag to the floor in what feels like slow motion before calling out for Louis.

“Louis! Get your ass in here!”

The dog doesn’t take well to him raising his voice – in fact, it actually backs up a few steps and its tail goes between his legs and his ears flatten against its giant head. And that’s when Louis appears in the hallway that leads to the bathroom and bedrooms. He’s wearing one of his usual oversized hoodies with the animal shelter logo on the front and a pair of jeans with a strange American flag pattern on them that Louis definitely didn’t own before now. 

“Harry!” Louis hisses, rushing forward and bending down next to the beast that had been cornering Harry. “You can’t raise your voice like that! Jeffrey is sensitive – his previous owner was very abusive!”

“And he’s in our apartment, keeping me from entering it because?”

“Because. He needs to be socialized. This weekend I’m going to be spending time with him and getting him more accustomed to being around people so we can put him up for adoption,” Louis explains, gently petting the top of the dog’s head. It – Jeffrey – seems to calm down being near Louis and as badly as Harry wants to be pissed off, he really can’t be. Louis is good at his job. He’s probably the best one for it. So if he wants to bring home shelter animals and torment Harry with them, so be it.

“Whatever. I’m going to go shower. Maybe you should teach Jeffery that I live here and would appreciate it if he didn’t try to attack me whenever I come in.” Jeffrey slinks off to the living room, eying Harry as he curls up beside the couch. Louis smiles affectionately at it and Harry rolls his eyes. “Next time, maybe volunteer to house a smaller dog. Jeffrey is practically the size of a horse.”

“Okay,” Louis says cheerfully, standing up straight and wrapping his arms around Harry’s waist. “How was class?”

“Same as always. Sat in the back and took notes and wished I was anywhere else,” Harry jokes, pulling Louis closer. “I’d ask how your day was, but I think I can guess. You went to that thrift store again, didn’t you?”

Louis ducks his head and tries to pull away, but Harry keeps him close. “No…what makes you think that?”

“Considering those Miss USA jeans you’re currently wearing…I’d say you definitely went. And even had a pretty successful shopping trip. It’s okay, Louis. I won’t judge you for buying ugly jeans.”

“I knew you wouldn’t like them. That’s part of the reason why I got them. And also because they were only five dollars. But mainly because I knew you would hate them.”

Harry sighs, “And the best boyfriend award clearly goes to you.” He steps back and lets go of Louis’s hips. “I’m going to go shower now. And by the time I get out, you better have trained that beast to not attack me every time I come in the front door. Got it?”

Louis salutes him, barely containing his smile and Harry has to resist the urge to just grab him and kiss him.

\- - -

There’s a cat in the bathtub when Harry moves the curtain aside. It looks up at Harry with a bored expression and looks like it has no intention of moving. So, Harry turns the water on and the cat is gone in an instant, hissing and spitting as it hurls itself out of the tub, hiding in the towel closet that Harry left open. Harry jut shrugs and adjusts the temperature.

When they first moved to San Diego three years ago, Louis felt so out of place that Harry was almost positive that he was starting to regret becoming human. He didn’t go to school with Harry, which meant that he either had to get a job to help support themselves, or go crazy staying at home in the apartment all day. But apparently times have changed and you need at least a high school education to a job basically anywhere that will pay minimum wage or higher. So Louis had serious trouble finding a place that would hire him, which naturally made him a little bit depressed. He would go on and on to Harry about how he had to “find his purpose as a human being”. And that was a tough one for Harry to deal with.

But finally, one day they happened to stumble upon a job that was perfect for Louis. It was almost as if God was actually paying attention and heard Louis’s constant prayers for help in finding a job (he still prays every single night because his ‘angel morals did not go away’). They found a stray cat outside their apartment building and they brought it to the nearest animal shelter, and once the staff realized how great Louis was with handling animals, they offered him a part-time job which would eventually turn into a full-time job that occasionally drives Harry crazy. But he doesn’t mind because now Louis has finally found his purpose as a human being and isn’t sad anymore. To say it was a relief would be an understatement. Sure, now he has a house full of animals but he can deal with that as long as Louis is happy. Louis gave up so much for him – the least he can do is let him have a few animals.

Harry works at a small independent music store a few days a week and on the weekends. At first, it was just a job that he needed in order to pay rent and pay bills. But eventually, he started enjoying it and didn’t mind being there and he was good with customers and helping them find the CD they were looking for. The owner of the store recognized how hard Harry worked and how much he cared about the store and had approached him with the idea of Harry becoming his business partner after graduation, considering it was hard for the man to run the business and still take his vacations to Florida. Harry didn’t hesitate in saying yes and picking up a business management minor in addition to his current accounting major. In less than a year, he’ll be graduated with a small business to run and enough of an income to support himself and his crazy, animal loving ex-Angel boyfriend. If you had told him this is what his life would be like when he first moved to San Diego, he’d probably have laughed.

Twenty minutes later, Harry is out of the shower and confronted with Louis sitting on the bathroom counter next to the sink, kicking his legs back and forth leisurely. Harry freezes, water dripping off of him onto the floor, wondering what this confrontation could possibly be about. He doesn’t seem pissed off, so he knows it can’t be about tormenting one of his cats with water. “Um. Is there a reason you’re being a creep again?” he asks once he’s decided he really has no idea what this is about. He grabs his towel from the counter and wraps it around his waist, looking at Louis expectantly.

“We’re having guests,” Louis informs him, eyes lighting up. “John and Landon called. They’re visiting Liam and Zayn and then they’re coming to see us.”

“Oh. Well at least they warned us this time,” Harry grumbles, taking another towel out of the closet to dry his hair. The cat he upset earlier is hiding on the third shelf, its yellow eyes boring holes into Harry as it stares. Harry shuts the door on it completely.

His actions don’t slip by Louis, however. He sighs dramatically and slides himself off the counter, reaching out to open the closet door again. “Harry, you just locked Skunk in the closet. Be more careful! She’s afraid of the dark!” The cat jumps down from the shelf as Harry is towel drying his hair, wondering what the hell it did to earn the name ‘Skunk’. Louis shoos it out of the bathroom and picks up Harry’s dirty clothes from the floor. “They’ll probably be here in an hour. I need your help cleaning.”

Louis tries leaving the bathroom with Harry’s clothes to put in their laundry basket, but Harry prevents him by grabbing his hips and pulling him back to him and asking, “If I help you clean up, what do I get in return?”

But Louis slips out of Harry’s grip way too easily, as if he’s been practicing, and just shrugs his shoulders as he stands in the doorway. “A clean apartment.”

\- - -

This is only the second time that Louis and Harry have seen John and Landon since they moved to San Diego – actually, since they went back to Heaven. The first time they saw them was four months after they disappeared, and they showed up in the middle of the bathroom while Harry was taking a shower. Needless to say, Harry didn’t really find it as amusing as they did. At least this time, they’ve shown up with at least an hour warning and actually use the front door.

“How do you use this?”

“I’m still not really sure…Harry takes care of all the cooking because last time I tried, I set the pasta on fire.”

“Oh…It looks confusing.”

John and Louis are examining the waffle maker that Harry left next to the sink while it was drying after he washed it this morning. John just looks completely confused by it while Louis just looks afraid of it. And that’s probably Harry’s fault, because he kind of told Louis to never touch any cooking appliance in the kitchen because he’ll just start a fire. It was a little bit harsh but it’s true – he did somehow set the pasta on fire during that first week in their apartment. Louis doesn’t take it too personally – he’s pretty content letting Harry cook for him. He’s not sure how the Angels got by when they all lived together.

“Ever regret your decision?” Landon asks Harry while they watch the baseball game on TV. Harry’s not sure who’s playing. He thinks it’s San Francisco, but he isn’t paying close enough attention to be positive.

He does know that Landon is referencing Harry’s decision to have a relationship with an Angel turned human. Harry looks at Louis and watches as he tries to figure out how to use the waffle maker and he shrugs his shoulders. Landon asked him the same question last time and Harry is going to give him the same answer.

“Not really, no.”

\- - -

They take a walk after John and Landon leave a little bit after seven. Harry has to get a few things from the CVS a few blocks away and Louis can’t pass up the opportunity to walk his dogs so he instantly agreed to it. And Harry figured it’s pretty nice out for October – they should take advantage of the weather while the still can because soon enough it’s going to get a little colder day by day. Of course, California doesn’t get that cold, but still colder than they’ve been used to lately.

“So, how long do you think Jeffrey here will be staying with us?” Harry asks, gesturing towards the dog that’s dragging Louis along the sidewalk. For a dog that seems to be afraid of basically everything, he’s very interested in the scents on the sidewalk in the dark on a street he has never even been on before. “A week? Two tops?”

“As long as he needs to,” Louis responds, tugging back on the leash so Jeffrey doesn’t drag him to the ground. Louis is on the smaller side so he doesn’t weigh very much and it would be pretty easy for this beast of an animal to drag him down the street. “The head veterinarian said that she thinks he’ll do well with me as long as I take every opportunity to socialize him and get him out of his shell. He’s already doing well just being around the pets in our apartment. I have high hopes for him.”

“Oh thank goodness.”

Louis misses the sarcasm, as he almost always does, and Harry just smiles to himself as he inches even closer to his boyfriend, arms brushing together as they walk down the street. They make it downtown in five minutes, ending up in a crowded area. There are people waiting for the bus and the bars are crowded already, despite it still being early. They’re five feet from the CVS when Louis freezes beside him, halting in his tracks and glancing around him with nervous eyes.

“What?” Harry asks, walking back a few steps to where he’s frozen. “What’s the matter?”

Jeffrey doesn’t look alarmed in the slightest. He’s sniffing at a parking meter curiously, giving off no signs of fear or nervousness, so whatever it is that’s upsetting Louis isn’t something that Jeffrey could be aware of. Harry’s not sure when he became such an expert on animal reactions, but he thinks it must have something to do with the fact that his home is practically Noah’s Arc these days.

“You’re scaring me,” Harry mumbles when Louis still doesn’t answer him. His eyes are now focused on the bar across the street, which is so packed that there are a few people drinking at the tables outside. Harry grips Louis’s elbow and tugs him backwards, snapping him out of his daze and consequently choking Jeffrey as he’s forcefully tugged away from the parking meter. Harry can worry about him later.

Louis blinks up at him, biting his lip and still clearly as nervous as he was moments ago. “That bar across the street. There are Angels there.”

Since Louis fell, the only Angels in their lives had been his brothers – and they technically weren’t even in their lives. At least not consistently. So Angels haven’t been anything that Harry has had to be concerned about in a very long time. And the fact that Louis can still sense when one is near him? It’s interesting, but also a little worrying. So Harry just looks at him and waits for further explanation because nothing is making any sense to him right now.

“I didn’t expect my ability to sense other Angels being around me to just disappear,” Louis explains, “But I thought that by now it would be long gone. It’s been years. But apparently not. I can tell they’re there. At least two of them.”

“But when Landon and John were over today, did you feel the same way you do now?”

Louis shrugs. “I knew they were there, so I wouldn’t really pay much attention to it.” He looks back across the street, watching the people outside of the bar. Harry can’t help but wonder if it’s one of them that Louis is sensing. Or if it’s somebody inside the bar. It’s weird, knowing how close they are to Angels when they very rarely come in contact with them now. He doesn’t really like it. Who knows if these Angels are good or bad?

“Maybe I should go inside-” Louis starts, but Harry laughs, interrupting him before he can even finish.

“You are not. We’re going to CVS and getting paper towels and batteries and some tape and then we’re going to get some hot chocolate and then we’re going home.”

“But…”

“No, Louis,” Harry protests, grabbing his upper arm and pulling him forward so they’re walking again. The dog walks happily next to Louis, completely unaware of anything being unusual. “I know you want to talk to them,” he says softly, “But you can’t. It’s too dangerous. Remember? The last thing we need is Adam popping up to kill you because you went against your word and talked to Angels. I wouldn’t be able to handle that. So please, just forget it?”

It takes a few moments but Louis finally agrees to it. He lets out a breath he’d been holding and nods his head. “You’re right. I have nothing to do with Angels anymore. I haven’t in a long time.”

“Maybe one day you can talk to them again – I know it’s hard not knowing what’s going on up there. But only when we know it’s safe.”

Louis sighs and lean into Harry’s side as they reach the front sliding doors of the 24 hour CVS. “It’s not hard. Just strange. I think if everything was suddenly reversed and I had to go back to Heaven and not be with you, I’d have a much more difficult time with that.”

As much as Harry hates to acknowledge it, hearing Louis reaffirm that his decision to fall was a good one definitely helps his self-esteem. He leaves Louis and Jeffrey outside while he goes into the pharmacy to get what he needs quickly and while he’s picking out which brand of paper towels he wants to buy, he overhears a mom in the next aisle arguing with her kids and suddenly, a million thoughts are going through his mind.

He knows Louis is it for him. If he wasn’t, then Harry would be a total asshole. But, he definitely is and suddenly Harry is thinking about the future – like, five years into the future. He can see himself with kids and a wedding ring and a real house. It’s all so clear to him and it doesn’t scare him at all and he wonders if that should concern him. He’s twenty-one years old and completely content with the idea of being married with kids within five years.

It’s hard for Harry to comprehend the fact that he went through most of his high school career being completely against Angels and their plans of blending into society and spending most of his time avoiding them and acting as though they were more dangerous than anything else on the planet. Sometimes he wonders what would have happened if he didn’t pull his head out of his ass and get close to Louis; if he’d kept being an asshole and kept the same mindset as Josh. He wouldn’t be where he is today, that’s definitely true. But for some reason, he’s a pretty firm believer in fate and no matter what, Louis would have impacted his life one way or another. Harry is just glad he was able to impact Louis’s, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for sticking this out with me!! Let me know what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> I’m working on something new so if you wanna stay updated with me follow my Twitter @cutewittleankle


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